A recent Washington Post report said President-elect Trump’s aides are considering narrowing his tariff plans so they would only apply to limited specific critical imports.
However, Farm Policy News says Trump denied that would happen. In Trump’s words in a Truth Social post, he says, “The story which quoted so-called anonymous sources which don’t exist, incorrectly states my tariff policy will be pared back, and that is wrong,” he said. If it would come to fruition, that plan would mark a significant narrowing of the universal tariffs of 10 to 20 percent that Trump proposed during his campaign, a move which economists expect to drive up consumer prices and distort global trade patterns.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to impose a 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods and to phase out imports of essential goods from China over four years, and a 25 percent tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada.