Trump announces new 25 percent tariff on all cars made outside the U.S.
President Trump signed an executive order imposing 25% tariffs on imported cars on Wednesday.
“I think our automobile business will flourish like it’s never flourished before,” Trump said in remarks from the Oval Office.
The latest policy is yet another example of the president’s tariff-centric second-term economic agenda. Thus far, Trump has imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, steel and aluminum, and on some goods from Canada and Mexico. Trump also plans a wave of what he calls “reciprocal tariffs” to start April 2, which he has called “Liberation Day.” The taxes on imports have caused plummeting stock markets and consumer confidence, and have left businesses and consumers uncertain about what they want to invest in.
The Trump administration has given multiple rationales for these tariffs, but they have emphasized boosting manufacturing as the chief goal.
U.S. tariffs are paid to the government by businesses in the U.S. that are importing goods. Studies of tariffs imposed in Trump’s first term have shown they were overwhelmingly paid by U.S. businesses and consumers. White House officials have said that foreign companies will lower their prices to compensate for tariffs, essentially eating the cost. However, when asked by NPR, the officials provided no data to support this.
Trump’s tariff policy has been chaotic throughout this presidency. In addition to the tariffs already imposed, he has threatened still more tariffs on a range of goods from around the world, at times announcing a tariff only to then delay or retract it.
Earlier this week, Trump floated what he called a “secondary tariff” of 25 percent on goods from any country buying oil or gas from Venezuela.
The president has said he will also impose “reciprocal tariffs”, which he has described as being equal to tariffs other countries impose on U.S. goods. However, the White House has given few specific details on what those reciprocal tariffs will look like. The latest automobile tariffs go into effect April 3 according to Trump.
Photos: See No Kings protests around the country
People gathered for pro-democracy protests across the country today.
Israel says it killed 9 Iranian nuclear scientists, and braces for attacks from Iran
Israel's military says the nine nuclear scientists killed played spent decades working on Iran's nuclear program.
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Minnesota state lawmaker killed, another wounded in targeted shootings
A former Minnesota House speaker and her husband were killed and a state senator and his wife were wounded in targeted shootings early Saturday at their homes near Minneapolis, officials said.
In one of the nation’s most polluted communities, Trump terminates funding for air monitoring
Residents in majority-Black north Birmingham have long been subjected to industrial pollution. The new administration has cut funding for a program aimed at measuring the impact.
10 years after the deadly church shooting, a new history of ‘Mother Emanuel’
Reporter Kevin Sack's new book is a history of Charleston's Emanuel AME Church, the oldest Black congregation in the South, where a white supremacist killed nine worshippers a decade ago.
