As President Donald Trump rolls out a new slate of tariffs, one economist ripped the president for copying his own tariff rates introduced back in April “almost exactly,” calling the logic behind the new rates “destructive, incoherent and ridiculous” on MSNBC Wednesday.
“The suggested new tariff rate for each of these countries will be almost exactly the same as what he said back on April 2,” said Australian economist Justin Wolfers on MSNBC.
“Just to make this a little harder to keep track of, he's added or subtracted a couple of percentage points depending on what country you are in what, as far as I can tell, is a thoroughly random manner.”
Trump first rolled out what he called reciprocal tariffs on April 2, which he dubbed “Liberation Day,” though within a week instituted a 90-day pause to allow for further negotiations between countries. Some of America’s largest trading partners saw taxes on their exports to the United States more than triple, like China, which was hit with a 145% tariff, or Taiwan, hit with a 32% tariff.
“Markets tanked as they understood how destructive, incoherent and ridiculous they were, this was a tariff formula that no economist on the planet has stood up for,” Wolfer said. “So within seven days, the president was convinced they were a really bad idea, so to save face, he pressed pause.”
The 90-day pause was originally set to expire on Tuesday, though Trump has since extended that deadline to Aug. 1, and pledged that no further extensions would be entertained. In the last week, Trump has also sent out letters to dozens of countries, informing them of the new tariff rates that will be imposed on them, including 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea, and a 50% tariff on Brazil, the latter announced on Wednesday.
“This is Liberation Day, the summer rewind,” Wolfer said. “It's just the sequel, he's going back to the same policy. If you didn't like it then, you're not going to like this sequel, and I don't quite understand why they think it's going to sell better this time.”
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