President Donald Trump announced Monday that tariffs targeting automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and other industries would be revealed soon, creating uncertainty in international trade relations. He delivered his comments at a Cabinet meeting earlier this week. This came just hours after he released a different plan to slap 25% tariffs on every country that buys oil and gas from Venezuela.
President Trump's recent statements follow reports that his administration might be easing its tariff plans, which led to a surge in major stock indexes Monday.
It remains to be seen whether these new, sector-specific tariffs will go into effect in tandem with the planned “reciprocal tariffs.” Those mutual tariffs go into effect on April 2. “Those sector-specific tariffs … are going to happen or they’re not going to happen,” a White House official told CNBC earlier Monday.
So we'll be announcing some of these things in the very near future, not the long future, the very near future. - President Donald Trump
Indeed, Reuters reported shortly after the Wall Street Journal’s scoop on Sunday that the White House was leaning against including industry specific tariffs in that April 2 batch. This as Trump had previously hinted that both sets of tariffs would go into effect on the same day.
When pressed by reporters on the implications of these sectoral tariffs starting out that day, Trump at first stood firm that all tariffs would go into effect.
Yeah, it's going to be everything. - President Donald Trump
He subsequently announced that he will provide reciprocal exemption from these tariffs to most countries. As it stands, these tariffs are set to be imposed on April 2.
We'll be announcing cars very shortly. - President Donald Trump
At another White House event later Monday, President Trump added the lumber and semiconductor industries to his list, saying tariffs on those two sectors would come "down the road."
We already announced steel, as you know, and aluminum. - President Donald Trump
