In just more than 24 hours, President Donald Trump will roll out what seems his biggest trade policy yet, reciprocal tariffs, naming Wednesday as “Liberation Day” for American trade—though he’s sowed confusion on what countries and goods will be included, and how severe the action will be.
President Donald Trump gestures while speaking in the Oval Office on Monday.
“April 2nd is Liberation Day in America,” Trump wrote earlier this month, referring what he previously described as the “BIG ONE,” reciprocal tariffs.
Trump will unveil his “Liberation Day” master plan at the White House Rose Garden Wednesday at 3 p.m. EDT, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said he will announce a “country-based...tariff plan that will roll back the unfair trade practices that have been ripping off our country for decades.”
Trump told reporters Monday he’s “settled” on what he’ll announce, apparently coming to a conclusion after a dizzying, weeks long saga in which the president waffled between calling his actions “very kind” and “punitive.”
Trump administration officials have developed a framework to implement a blanket 20% tariff rate on a majority of imports, the Washington Post reported Tuesday morning, citing three anonymous sources.
After heavily teasing reciprocal tariffs in February, Trump pushed back the implementation of those levies to at least April 1, the date he ordered the Commerce and Treasury departments to complete studies on what the policies may look like in practice.
Trump said to reporters March 21 he shifted the “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariff date from April 1 to April 2 because he “didn't want [it] to be April Fool's Day because then nobody would believe what I said.”
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union’s European Commission, warned Tuesday the bloc is prepared to respond swiftly to Trump’s to-be-announced tariffs. “We do not necessarily want to retaliate but, if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it,” said von der Leyen. Last year, the U.S. imported $606 billion worth of EU goods and exported $370 billion worth of goods to the bloc, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Trump muddied the waters in that press conference when he said there will be “flexibility” on his tariffs, while The Wall Street Journal reported Trump won’t announce April 2 actions on hot-button sectors like semiconductor chips and cars as he’s previously indicated. Trump said in a March 25 interview with Newsmax he’ll “probably be more lenient than reciprocal, because if I was reciprocal, that would be very tough for people,” adding there will be “some exceptions.” April 2 is also the date when exemptions on goods from Trump’s 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, the U.S.’ biggest trade partners, are due to expire.
Though Trump insists he desires to upend the global trade status quo and directly match the equivalent tariff placed on American goods in a given country—“we’ve been ripped off by every country in the world, friend and foe,” Trump said this month—his top economic official, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, indicated last week the biggest development coming April 2 will be the White House will send a “number that we believe that represents their tariffs” to all trade partners. Trump’s waffling on reciprocal tariffs may be a result of his administration seeking strong legal footing for such expansive actions and take a two-phased approach, suggested a report in the Financial Times. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer supports initiating formal probes into trade partners, a process which could last up to six months, before slapping further tariffs, according to the publication. Trump could announce tariffs on car imports April 2, multiple sources told the Financial Times. Further watering down Trump’s Liberation Day plans, a White House official told CNBC that Trump may not factor into non-tariff barriers, indirect levies like value-added taxes which make U.S. goods even more expensive abroad, into his reciprocal tariffs.
In a March 24 appearance at the White House, Trump called April 2 a “big day,” but expressed further flexibility in his tariff plans. The president said he “may give a lot of countries breaks” and his plans are “reciprocal, but we may be even nicer than that,” signaling the U.S. may not even match the tariff rates American goods face abroad.
2.5 million. That’s how many individual tariff rates would be required in a good-by-good, country-by-country reciprocal tariff plan, UBS economists led by Jonathan Pingle wrote in a note to clients, making it appear unlikely at this point the Trump administration will be able to turn around such a policy by next week.
“Presumably something is going to happen,” but “the hard part is trying to figure out what precisely that might be,” shrugged the UBS economists.
Tesla is among the U.S.-based multinational firms to caution the Trump administration against the adverse effects of new tariffs in slowing the business of American firms abroad, opposition which was particularly notable considering Musk’s role as perhaps the most powerful person in the White House other than Trump. Stocks have tanked as Trump has reshaped trade policy, and the S&P 500 is trading 9% below its Feb. 19 record. Though reciprocal tariffs have the potential to be the most impactful import tax, Trump has already enacted several tariffs, including a 25% levy on steel and aluminum and an additional 20% duty on Chinese goods. Perhaps the most significant fallout of the tariffs is inflation, as economists largely agree importers will pass on the levies to consumers via higher prices, at least in the near term.