Tariffs are a clear commitment of President Donald Trump’s campaign, and they are his decisive characteristics Second term. But in just five months, many of his tariff statements have not become a reality.
Although Trump has raised many widespread tariffs on U.S. businesses and consumers’ purchases from overseas, he threatens to have much more tariffs than his.
This creates an atmosphere of uncertainty that leads to layoffs and delays in investments in some businesses and leads to stock market volatility. Financial analysts have called Trump's bankruptcy, the taco trade, or the taco theory the abbreviation of "Trump always chicken out." (When asked by reporters, Trump called the question "hate" and said, "This is negotiation.")
It's 10 times more threatening and then backtracking since Trump took office. It is worth noting that in some cases, such as the threatening tariffs on Colombia, the government did win policy concessions in other regions after posing the threat. But other tariff threats have come, and there are no other tangible results.
In his latest tariff measures, Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on goods shipped from the EU to the U.S. last Friday, saying European countries are not taking on ongoing trade negotiations seriously enough.
Trump said the tariffs will take effect on June 1, but he delayed it to July 9 two days later after he said he had spoken with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Trump said she asked for a delay.
Trump once threatened Europe's tariffs by 20% with a portion of the "reciprocal" tariffs announced on April 2. But Trump lowered tariffs on Europe and most other countries by 90 days a few hours after these tariffs were originally scheduled to come into effect, so that his time to engage in personal trade transactions was given. The tariffs on European imports are still 10%.
In addition to the broader EU tariffs, Trump announced On March 13, on social media, he will impose a 200% tariff on wines imported from the EU, after the EU threatened a 50% tariff on U.S. whiskey. This threat arose from Trump's early tariffs on European steel and aluminum.
Alcohol tits tat Never achieved, European officials said a week later that they delayed tariffs threatening whiskey until mid-April, awaiting negotiations with the United States. There are no tariffs on European wines except for all import tariffs on Trump’s blankets.
One of Trump's first tariff targets is the United States' neighbors, Canada and Mexico. Just weeks after taking office, he signed an executive order to impose a 25% tariff on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, saying they were not doing enough to prevent fentanyl from flowing across the border.
In response, Canada and Mexico announced their own retaliatory tariffs on American goods, and Canadians began boycotting American brands.
Trump said he had suspended for 30 days the day before the tariffs were collected. He said he is suspending due to actions from Canada and Mexico, although they have taken it at the border when Trump first announced his tariffs.
Trump said Canada's 25% tariffs will take effect once they are paused for 30 days. But two days after he imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico, he said he would pause them again until April 2 for most commodities. Canada and Mexico were excluded when Trump announced widespread tariffs in almost all countries on April 2.
Despite walking back and forth, most commodities in Canada and Mexico are not yet tariffed under the North American trade agreement signed by Trump’s first semester.
Trump said on social media that he directed his administration to start charging 100% tariffs, "no details are provided for all the films and all the films made in our country on foreign lands.
Hours later, the White House said no final decision was made and the administration was “exploring its options.” By the afternoon, Trump said he would meet with industry officials to make sure they were "satisfied" with his plan. The government has taken no action since the initial social media post.
Trump declared various tariffs to almost every country in the world as part of his so-called mutual tariffs in the event called "Liberation Day." "With the day when the American industry is reborn, the day when the fate of the United States is recycled, and the day when we start to make the United States rich again, this will always be remembered," Trump said.
These tariffs range from a baseline of 10% to a 49% higher.
But on the day those tariffs will take effect on April 9, Trump said he had been pausing them until July 2, when there was time to negotiate with more than 90 countries connected to his administration. He said he would impose a 10% blanket tariff in almost all countries during the transition period.
Since the suspension of “reciprocity” tariffs, Trump has only announced one outline of a trade deal with the UK.
The Trade Court ruled on Wednesday that Trump exceeded his power to impose these tariffs. The Trump administration appealed the ruling, and the tariffs remain.
Tariffs on China have been one of Trump's most stable threats - he has repeatedly "deprived" the United States with unfair trade practices. Trump raised his tariffs on China to more than 145% in April within months, a level that has led businesses to stop goods from China and to stop future orders.
But just as the last import volume before importing from China to U.S. ports, shipments from China are expected to roll, Trump said he lowered tariffs to 10% within 90 days,,,,, After the initial meeting between Finance Minister Scott Bessent and his Chinese counterparts, we had time with Chinese officials to start trade discussions. Trump's 20% tariff related to the country's production of fentanyl ingredients left 20% tariffs.
The Trade Court ruled on Wednesday that the appeal process would continue, but the fentanyl tariffs were reduced by 10% and 20% by 20%.
A few days after raising China's tariffs to at least 145%, Trump created an engraving for iPhones and other electronics made in China, reducing their tariff rates to 20%.
Still, Trump continues to push for iPhones in the U.S. rather than other low-cost countries like India, and Apple says it is increasingly changing manufacturing. Trump said last Friday that he would impose a 25% tariff on iPhones and other smartphones, no matter where they are made, starting from the end of June.
But senior administration officials seem to have evaded Trump’s demands to make iPhones in the United States, and The scope of any potential tariffs. Bessent said that what Trump wants to make in the United States is the chips in the phone, not necessarily the phone itself.
National Economic Commission Director Kevin Hassett said a few days later that the government did not want to "harm Apple", calling the move "there are now small tariffs on them, trying to lower the tariffs."
On the sixth day after Trump returned to his office, he ignited a trade quarrel with Colombia that lasted less than 24 hours. Trump threatened Colombia's tariffs after the president banned two U.S. military aircraft from carrying migrants to land in the country. The United States is the main importer of coffee, flowers and agricultural products from Colombia.
Colombia responds to 25% tariff on U.S. products. But soon It said that it would allow flights, and the two countries retreated from the threat of a trade war.
Trump said he would impose huge tariffs on Toymaker Mattel even if it moved its overseas output out of China but did not see it migrate to the United States after its CEO said he wanted to move more production to China.
"It's OK, let go, we're going to impose a 100% tariff on his toys, and he won't sell a toy in the United States, which is their biggest market.
After that, Trump suggested that the United States is more interested in bringing high-skilled manufacturing with national security factors to the country rather than low-cost consumer goods.
"Honestly, I don't want to make t-shirts. I don't want to make socks. We can do well elsewhere," he said. "We're looking for chips, computers and a lot of other things and tanks and ships."
Trump announced a 25% tariff on all automatic import tax rates effective April 3, which will apply to any unassembled U.S. vehicles, which will account for nearly half of all vehicles in the country.
About a month later, he signed an executive order that eased some of these tariffs and addressed the cost of cars they would raise the cost of gathering in the United States and import from other countries.
Trump later said that under a tentative trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, officials from both sides continued to negotiate that he would reduce tariffs on British-made cars, such as those of Land Rover and Aston Martin.