Watch: What we do and don’t know about Trump’s “Liberation Day”
Donald Trump says the prices are coming. This message from the American president was consistent.
But what rates and when? Import taxes have become so thick and fast since he took office that it can be difficult to follow.
Trump has already increased his rights on Chinese imports, as well as on steel, aluminum and certain goods from Canada and Mexico. Higher samples from cars are expected to come into force this week.
We are now waiting for Trump to reveal the details of his plan for a wider rate of rates, that his team has spent the last few weeks to develop.
The White House calls it “Liberation Day”. So what could we learn on Wednesday?
What is the size of the prices?
The White House did not say how high the prices could go, although various possible rates were launched by analysts.
On the campaign of the campaign last year, Trump supported a tariff of 10% between imports on all imports in the United States, sometimes suggesting that this could be 20%, or even 60% on imports from China.
Once in office, he introduced the idea of ”reciprocal” prices, suggesting that rates could vary the country by country.
“Very simply, it is if they charge us, we invoice them,” he said in February, shortly before ordering those in charge of developing such a plan.
The White House almost immediately complicated the image, noting that their recommendations would not only reflect the prices but also the other policies which, according to them, are unfair for American companies, such as value added (VAT).
This has led to a race, because companies and political leaders are trying to understand the great tax with which their products could be confronted; And how everything that is announced on Wednesday will interact with other tasks, such as those in steel and aluminum, already put into force by Trump.
Europe officials, for example, are preparing at a two -digit rate on their exports. Trump earlier this year said that he planned to hit the goods from the block with an import tax of 25%.
Watch: What is a price? Adam Fleming of the BBC explains
What countries could be affected?
The Trump administration has not confirmed which countries will be affected, although it has followed the announcement on Wednesday as scanning.
The president said on Sunday that the new prices could apply to “all countries”, suggesting a possible return to the cross tariff he supported in the campaign.
He hosted hopes in some countries, such as the United Kingdom, who thought they could float under the radar, although many always hope to conclude a kind of transaction.
But it is not yet clear to what extent the prices will be universally applied or more targeted.
Last month, the United States Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, said the efforts focused on the “Dirty 15”-the 15% of the countries that explain most of the trade with the United States and impose prices or other rules that put American companies in a disadvantage.
The office of the US trade representative, while he was preparing to develop recommendations, identified the countries in which he was “particularly interested”.
They were Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom and Vietnam.
Trump himself has reserved some of his most severe criticisms for historical allies and the main business partners, such as Canada and the EU.
“The friend was often worse than the enemy,” he said last week.
What impact will the prices have?
Prices are import taxes. So the big question is, who will pay?
Technically, there is a simple response: American companies that bring the goods are the companies that will face the bill, especially if the White House begins to take the “immediately” prices, as suggested by the spokesperson Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday.
But the higher the prices, the more companies will seek means to compensate for these costs, either by modifying suppliers, by pushing business partners to share the burden – or by increasing the prices of Americans.
Many companies have said they were already preparing for this stage. But it is a risky game because if companies increase prices too much, buyers will simply stay away.
The dynamics have increased the risks of an economic recession in the United States – and far from its borders, where many companies are counting on American sales.
Trump says that companies seeking to avoid prices can simply do their business in the United States, but it is not an immediate or easy solution, given the high costs of hiring and the implementation of factories.
Introduce foreign currency oscillations and reprisals by other countries in the mixture, and the repercussions of Trump’s candidacy to reset global trade sales should prove difficult to predict long after Wednesday’s announcement.
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