Trump and customs – this is true for the moment
US President Donald Trump has for decades expressed his delight over customs as a tool to solve most of the American economy. During the first term of office, he began a trade war against the EU while renegotiated the free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada – the neighboring countries which together with China were his first targets in this round in the White House.
During 80 days of presidency, Trump has mentioned a difficult -to -understand amount of percentages that he said he wants to place as a customs duty on goods from different countries. In this process, the EU has taken a prominent role in his view of how the outside world only exploits or even deceives the United States in global trade.
As head of state, he began with a promise in the installation figure to « customs and tax other countries to make our citizens richer ». A week later, Colombia goods would be coated with 25 percent customs and a few days later it was precisely Mexico and Canada that would be punished with the same amount-at the same time it was announced that China’s exports would be 10 percent more expensive.
Shortly thereafter, he launched the concept of « mutual customs duties » as its overall strategy and in this large markets such as India and the EU would be covered. The reciprocity has later been defined with a mathematical lineup of Greek letters, a trade balance equation that no economist outside the drum sphere has been able to see any logic in.
This week has been a kind of climax for event development. The prologue came on Saturday with a general 10 percent on goods from all over the world (except Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Belarus, North Korea and Russia) and on Monday the world’s stock exchanges responded to diving.
On Wednesday at 06.01, Swedish time, they kicked 20 percent against the EU as well, the three times increased, 104 percent against goods from China. Half a day later, Trump announced that the entire customs threat will be paused for 90 days. The whole customs threat? No, not the general 10 percent, and goods from China should immediately be covered by 125 percent customs.
On the other side of the Atlantic, EU member states have been filtered on countermeasures, which on Wednesday was presented in a three -step package: up to 25 percent tariffs will be placed on various US goods such as orange juice, soybeans, tobacco, steel and aluminum. These customs are introduced according to the decision on April 15, May 16 and December 1, different dates for different goods on the list. The decision was unanimous as on Hungary who voted no for countermeasures. What Trump’s announcement of paused customs means for EU’s announced tariffs is still unclear.
Foreign Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa (M) tells DN that the government is analyzing « what kind of message is actually given » and that it is too early to draw any conclusions yet.
