After releasing details at the afternoon Rose Garden Ceremony, President Trump settled on a final plan to wipe out “mutual” tariffs expected to take effect Wednesday.
White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt checked the timeline during a briefing with reporters Tuesday, adding that Trump was swarming with his trade team to emit finer points in his approach to ending “decades of unfair trade practices.”
When the administration was pressed to be concerned about the wrong approach to tariffs, Lewitt confidently threw a note: “They wouldn't be wrong,” she said. “It's going to work.”
The administration has been weighing several different tariff strategies over the last few weeks. One option considered by the White House is a 20% flat tariff on all imports, and advisers say it will help the US government earn more than $6 trillion in revenue.
However, advisors also discuss the idea of ​​assigning different tariff levels to countries in response to the trade barriers these countries place on American products. They also say that some countries may avoid tariffs entirely by hitting trade deals with the US.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said the US was “very great, relatively speaking” in imposing tariffs on a vast number of countries, including American allies.
“The words are very important,” Trump told reporters. “What they do to us, we'll do to them.”
By Tuesday, Levitt said the president would make the decision and “finish it” along with his trading team. When asked if businesses could do anything to avoid tariffs, Levitt said the president was “always to make calls” from businesses, but “is very focused on correcting past mistakes.”
She also said many foreign governments called to the president and his team to talk about tariffs, but Trump was focused on US interests.
“The President has an incredible team of advisors who have studied these issues for decades, focusing on restoring America's golden age and making America a manufacturing superpower,” she said.
The tariff outlook is making the market uneasy. The shares were extended at the start of trading, with the S&P 500 down about 0.4% before the rebound after a choppy day on Monday, closing at an index that registered the worst month and quarter since 2022.
Investors still clarify the scope of Trump's mutual tariffs, and the economic uncertainty surrounding the world trade war has fueled stock market volatility in recent weeks.
It is plaguing the manufacturing industry, which showed signs of contraction in March, similarly, according to data released Tuesday from the Supply Management Institute, which is closely tracked by the White House. The report found a decline in employment and new orders as businesses warned about the nature of Trump's tariffs and the prospect of costly global retaliation.
The president is expected to receive reports from advisors on almost 20 trade-related topics on Tuesday and will advise him on how to deal with a variety of issues.
Reports attributable to the Department of Commercial Transactions and the Treasury and the US Trade Representative examine the causes of sustained trade deficits, unfair trade practices by other countries, gaps in existing trade agreements, and recommendations for achieving interrelationships in trade relations.
For example, trade representatives were responsible for identifying countries where the US needs to negotiate a new trade agreement, and China was responsible for whether they supported their commitments under the 2020 trade agreement that Trump signed in his first term.
In some cases, Trump acted before looking at the details of the report. He asked for a review of whether foreign metals pose a risk to national security, but Trump has already imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports. He also attacked Canada, Mexico and China. It was struck with tariffs aimed at blowing the flow of fentanyl and immigration into the United States, another area his administration was studying.
How Trump plans to go on Wednesday remains an open question. This is what American trading partners struggle to determine their response.
The European Union has already announced it will combat Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs. But European officials are still thinking about how Trump will handle tariffs announced Wednesday.
So far, the European response has focused on imposing high tariffs on a variety of products, one of the products that whiskey, motorcycles and women's clothing could be affected, but authorities are also open to placing trade barriers to services using new trade weapons developed only in 2021.
The tool could be used to strike large tech companies, the two diplomats familiar with the issue spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. This means that instead of affecting physical products, it could affect companies like Google, Meta, and even American banks.
The goal is to provide more services to the European Union as Europe purchases more services from the US than exports. Its marketplace and access to European consumers, a potentially powerful tool. However, no decision has been made.
“There are a lot of cards in Europe,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, in a speech Tuesday. “From trade to technology to the size of our market.”
Authorities emphasize that their goal is still to negotiate, but will respond firmly when necessary.
“All the instruments are on the table,” von der Leyen said.
Daniel Kay Reports of contributions.
