“我认为这是唯一公平的方式，这样没有人会受到伤害”，特朗普称，“他们向我们收费，我们也向他们收费。这是一样的。我考虑走这条路，而不是征收统一的关税。”[Global Times Report, Reporter Jiang Ailing] According to reports from the American political news site "Politico" and Reuters, on February 7 local time, President Trump announced that he would announce reciprocal tariff measures next week. Reuters commented that Trump's "offensive" represents a "major escalation" in tearing up and reshaping favorable Global trade relations for the USA.
On February 7, Trump announced the above news during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, saying, "I will announce next week that we will implement reciprocal trade so that we are treated equally with other countries," and adding, "We neither ask for more nor less."
Trump also stated that the relevant tariff measures will apply to all countries, with the announcement possibly coming "next Monday or Tuesday."
"I think this is the only fair way, so that no one gets hurt," Trump said. "They charge us, and we charge them. It's the same. I consider taking this route instead of imposing uniform tariffs."
Politico mentioned that Trump often points out that foreign governments impose higher tariffs on American Autos, such as complaining about the EU's 10% import tariff on Autos, which is much higher than the USA's 2.5%.
The report also noted that previously, Trump threatened to impose a uniform tariff of 10% or 20% on all imported Commodities and tasked the government to study this possibility. On February 2 local time, Trump also stated that he plans to impose tariffs on EU products soon and reiterated his dissatisfaction with the trade deficit between the USA and the EU, as well as the EU's insufficient imports of American Autos and Shenzhen Agricultural Products Group.
Previously, the USA's decision to impose tariffs faced widespread opposition. Public opinion in the USA believes that the tariff measures could impact economic growth and ultimately harm the USA itself. On February 3 local time, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader and Democrat, stated that the tariff policy of the Trump administration was "the dumbest trade war in history."
