WASHINGTON, March 5. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has announced his intention to impose new reciprocal tariffs on imported goods from April 2.
"If you don’t make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff and, in some cases, a rather large one. Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada — have you heard of them? And countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. It’s very unfair," Trump told Congress.
The president emphasized that he originally wanted to set the date for the tariffs to be implemented on April 1, but decided to move it to April 2 to avoid associations with Fool's Day. "I’m a very superstitious person. April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in, and whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal, back and forth," Trump emphasized.
"India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100%. China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them. And South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that. Four times higher. And we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea. But that’s what happens. This is happening by friend and foe," the president added.
Trump also pointed out that the new measures are aimed at protecting the US market from unfair competition. "If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market," he said.