FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump leaves after chatting with Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson (R) in front of a Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
Calling out the Trump administration over its attempts to present the planned tariff increase as “tax cuts,” the Wall Street Journal termed these tariffs “a large revenue heist.”
“In the real economic world, a tariff is a tax,” the newspaper wrote in a Monday editorial.
The editorial was a response to President Donald Trump’s chief trade adviser Peter Navarro, who on Sunday told Fox News that tariffs will raise about $600 billion a year and “about $6 trillion over a 10-year period” but that this is a tax cut.
Navarro called Trump's tariffs proposal "the biggest tax cut in American history for the middle class, for the blue collar.”
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In a sharp rebuke to Navarro’s claims, the WSJ noted the $600 billion figure “would be one of the largest in U.S. history.”
“By any definition that is a tax increase,” the newspaper said.
“The President’s ideological fixation on tariffs is crowding out rational judgments about the consequences. Americans are being told to accept the pain of higher prices, a slower economy, and shrinking 401(k) balances in the name of Mr. Trump’s project to transform the American economy into what he imagines it was like in the McKinley era of the 1890s,” it added.
The president is set to introduce a series of tariffs on Wednesday on imports that he claims will free the United States from dependence on foreign products, frequently referring to April 2 as "Liberation Day.” But there are still many uncertainties regarding the implementation of Trump’s tariffs.
Trump indicated these tariffs will be "reciprocal," meaning they will match the duties imposed by other countries on American goods.
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump is expected to reveal his plans for reciprocal tariffs affecting nearly all U.S. trading partners on Wednesday. The specifics, however, will be determined by the president himself, per Leavitt.
Trump is radically altering the long-established rules of global trade. The "reciprocal" tariffs he is anticipated to announce on Wednesday could disrupt international businesses and create tension with both America's allies and rivals.
Since the 1960s, tariffs, or import taxes, have been a result of negotiations among numerous nations. Trump is aiming to take control of this process.
Trump argues that unfair competition from abroad has harmed American manufacturers and ravaged factory towns in the Midwest. In his first term, he imposed tariffs on foreign steel, aluminum, washing machines, solar panels and nearly all imports from China.
But critics say such tariffs hurt the American economy instead of helping it.