United States President Donald Trump has said his long-awaited reciprocal tariffs will be lower than what other countries charge as uncertainty over his biggest trade announcement yet continues to roil global stocks.
Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump said the tariffs he is preparing to announce on Wednesday will be “nicer” than the trade policies of US trading partners.
“We are going to be very nice by comparison to what they were. The numbers will be lower than what they have been charging us, and in some cases, maybe substantially lower,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office.
“Relatively speaking, we’re going to be very kind,” Trump said.
Repeating his regular talking point that the US has been taken advantage of by its trading partners, Trump said the measures would bring “tremendous wealth back to our country”.
“It’s really, in a sense, a rebirth of our country,” he said.
Trump’s remarks came a day after he clarified that the tariffs would apply to “all countries”, pouring cold water on hopes that the measures might only target countries responsible for the bulk of the US trade deficit.
“Just hours out from his big announcement, Trump and his team continue to give conflicting and inconsistent signals of what to expect,” Deborah Elms, the head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore, told Al Jazeera.
“I am taking this latest statement with a grain of salt,” Elms added.
“I still expect that tariffs will be applied to almost everyone. With higher levels for those with higher trade deficits and other Trump complaints.”
Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement, which he has dubbed “liberation day”, is just the latest in a flurry of trade salvoes launched by the US president in recent weeks.
Many of the measures – including 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and a 25 percent duty on all auto imports – are set to go into effect this week.
Other tariffs – including a 20 percent duty on all Chinese imports and 25 percent duties on aluminium and steel – have been in place since last month.
US stocks had a mixed performance on Monday, after equities in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Australia earlier racked up sharp losses.
The benchmark S&P 500, which is down nearly 6 percent from the start of March, rose 0.55 percent.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which is down more than 8 percent, fell 0.14 percent.
Asian markets clawed back some losses on Tuesday morning, with Japan’s Nikkei 225, South Korea’s KOSPI, Australia’s ASX200 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up by between 0.41 percent and 0.76 percent as of 1:30 GMT.
While Trump has talked up his April 2 tariff announcement for weeks, the scope and specifics of his plans have remained vague.
Though Trump often expressed his support for blanket tariffs during his election campaign, senior officials in his administration have indicated that specific countries are of particular concern.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month that the administration was particularly focused on what he termed the “Dirty 15” – the 15 percent of countries deemed to account for the bulk of trade imbalances while imposing steep tariffs and other non-tariff barriers.
While Bessent did not mention any countries by name, the US has some of its biggest trade deficits with China, the European Union, Canada, India, Japan, Vietnam and South Korea.
Kevin Hassett, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, suggested last month that officials were particularly looking at 10 to 15 countries that account for the bulk of the US trade deficit.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the tariffs could raise $600bn annually, which would imply a rate of about 20 percent, going by US imports valued at about $3 trillion.
In a potential clue as to Trump’s next moves, the Office of the US Trade Representative on Monday released a list of policies and regulations in dozens of countries that it considers barriers to trade.
The report outlined tariff rates and non-tariff barriers, such as food safety regulations and green energy rules, for China, the EU, Canada, Argentina, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates, among other trade partners.
While Trump has argued that his tariffs will boost manufacturing and create jobs in the US, economists have warned that the measures are likely to upend global supply chains and lead to higher prices for consumers.
The US president’s trade salvoes have stoked tensions with some of Washington’s closest allies, including Canada, Japan and the EU.
On Monday, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said in an interview with French radio that Europe should “take greater control of our destiny” and a “step towards independence” in the face of Trump’s trade moves.
