Christopher Rugaber and Paul Wiseman, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of forecasts and speculation, President Donald Trump continued on the threat of mutual tariffs by declaring 10% baseline tax on imports from all countries on Wednesday, as well as tariff rates in dozens of countries operating the US and the trade surplus.
In announcing mutual tariffs, Trump had fulfilled his key campaign promise by raising US taxes on foreign goods to narrow the gap between them and tariffs that other countries unfairly levied on US products.
“Mutually, ‘They mean they do it to us, and we do it to them,’ the president said Wednesday from the Rose Garden in the White House.
Trump’s higher fees will strike foreign entities selling more items to the US than they would buy. But economists don’t share Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs, as it is a tax on importers that is usually carried over to consumers. However, mutual tariffs could allow other countries to be taken to the table and lower their own import taxes.
The Associated Press asked you for your questions regarding mutual customs duties. Some of these are as follows along with our answers:
Will tariffs collected by the United States be included in the General Income Fund? Can Trump withdraw money from the fund without supervision?
Customs duties are taxes on imports collected by the Customs and Border Protection Agency when foreign goods cross the US border. About $80 billion in money last year will be sent to the US Treasury to help pay federal expenses. Congress has the authority to say how money is spent.
Trump – supported primarily by Republican lawmakers who control the US Senate and House – wants to use increased tariff revenue to fund tax cuts that analysts say will disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Specifically, they want to extend the tax cuts that will be handed over in Trump’s first term and largely expire at the end of 2025. The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, found that extending Trump’s tax cuts would reduce federal revenue by $4.5 trillion between 2025 and 2034.
Trump wants higher tariffs that will help offset lower tax collections. Another think tank, the Tax Policy Center, says it will extend the 2017 tax cuts to provide continued tax credits for Americans at all income levels.
How quickly will prices rise as a result of customs policy?
It depends on how both the US and overseas companies respond, but consumers can see the overall price being charged within a month or two of the tariffs. For some products, such as agricultural products from Mexico, prices can rise much more rapidly after customs duties become effective.
Some US retailers and other importers may eat a portion of the cost of customs duties, while overseas exporters may lower prices to offset additional obligations. But for many businesses, the tariffs Trump announced on Wednesday (such as 20% of imports from Europe) are too big to swallow on their own.
Companies can also use customs duties as an excuse to raise prices. When Trump took the washing machine duties in 2018, investigations showed that retailers later increased prices for both washer and dryer, even if they had no new duties.
The key question for the coming months is whether something similar will happen again. Economists are worried that consumers who have just overcome the biggest inflationary spike in 40 years are more used to rising prices than before the pandemic.
However, there are also indications that Americans, who are put off by rising costs of living, are not willing to accept price increases and simply cut their purchases. That may discourage businesses from significantly increasing prices.
What are the limits of the authority of an administrative agency to implement tariffs? Is Congress not playing a role?
The US Constitution gives power to set tariffs on Congress. However, over the years, Congress has delegated these powers to the President through several different laws. These laws specify situations where the White House can impose customs duties. This is limited to cases where imports pose national security threats or severely harm certain industries.
In the past, the president generally imposed tariffs only after hearings to determine whether certain imports met those standards. Trump followed those measures when he imposed tariffs in his first semester.
However, in his second semester, Trump tried to impose tariffs in a more ad hoc manner, using the emergency set in the 1977 law. For example, Trump said fentanyl influx from Canada and Mexico constitutes a national emergency, and using that pretext, imposing a 25% obligation from both countries.
Congress could try to cancel the president’s declaration of emergency, and Sen. Tim Kane, a Democrat from Virginia, suggested that we do that with regard to Canada. That law could pass the Senate, but will likely die in the House. Other legislation in Congress is to limit the powers to establish presidential powers, and faces similarly severe odds for passing.
Do other countries charge US goods?
U.S. tariffs are generally lower than those charged by other countries. According to the World Trade Organization, the average US tariffs weighted to reflect actual goods traded against 2.7% in the European Union, 3% in China and 12% in India is just 2.2% in the US.
Other countries also tend to do more than the US to protect farmers with high tariffs. For example, US trade-weighted tariffs are 4% compared to 8.4% in the EU, 12.6% in Japan, 13.1% in China and 65% in India. (WTO figures do not count Trump’s recent surge in import duties and tariffs between countries that have signed free trade agreements, such as the US-Mexico-Canada contract, which allows many goods to cross the borders of North America.)
Previous US administrations agreed to what Trump now calls unfair. They were the result of long negotiations between 1986 and 1994 (the so-called Uruguay Round), ending with a trade agreement signed by 123 countries, and have formed the basis for the global trading system for nearly 40 years.
Original issue: April 2, 2025, 7:04 PM EDT
