Trump Tariffs May Snuff The Greatest Economic Recovery In History
Not everyone on the political right is cheering on “Liberation Day” that Donald Trump will be announcing today. In his first term, Trump worked hard to negotiate USMCA with Canada and Mexico, and a free trade deal with Japan. Yet, those nations will be potentially facing 25% tariffs today. The stated purpose for these tariffs is to bring more manufacturing back to the U.S., yet statistics show that the U.S. is already a manufacturing giant. Dr Matt Will joins Tony Katz Today to discuss and question what m
So, tomorrow is it. April 2nd will be the day. One day more. Another day, another destiny. The tariffs will be implemented, and America will be saved from the horrors of these trade deals that have taken advantage of us low these many years. That’s the story President Trump has put out, and I don’t disagree regarding bad trade deals. You know that I’m not a fan of tariffs. All tariffs are taxes. But there is a question. Will we see benefit? Trump’s philosophy seems to be that the tariffs will force businesses to build here, more jobs here. That’s going to make things better, which would lead one to believe. That there is a dearth, a lack of manufacturing in the United States, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. And of course, I want to see more businesses come here. But can you force a business here by making it impossible to sell here? Don’t they have other allegiances and possibly business thoughts that might make them say, you know what, we’ll just have to deal with the fact that the US market. It’s gonna be down or is the US market so big that they can’t afford it? There’s a lot of questions about what these tariffs will mean and will do. Dr Matt Will joins us economist at the University of Indianapolis. And we know this about you, Dr Will, you’re not a fan of the tariffs. You’re willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt of a fair amount of economic plan. You certainly were not a fan of the Biden economic plan, but you’re not a fan of the tariffs. But I want to go over these two things with you, the tariffs and this concept of bringing business back here and manufacturing here versus where we are because well. We’re about to see whether or not the market shrugs it off or takes it seriously and drops even more. It’s been as it’s been dropping by hundreds of points over the last couple weeks. Let’s start with the tariffs themselves. Talk to me about what we’re going to see tariffs on, allegedly, because it could all change and where it takes us.
Well, the list is very long. I mean there’s stuff going to be done on Canada, Mexico, China. The big thing is the 25% on automobiles and automobile parts that’s supposed to go into place this April 2nd or 3rd. There’s going to be an exemption for USMCA compliant parts from Canada and Mexico. 25% on steel, 25% on aluminum, 25% on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. That’s supposed to go into place potentially tomorrow, copper reciprocal tariffs, which is I guess the president’s calling it “Liberation Day” mostly with Europe, but. Actually, the entire world. And then a massive 200% tariff on alcohol coming in from Europe. So that’s, that’s just the start, Tony. We could talk more, but that’s just the start of the tariffs.
Dr Will you have said you are OK with reciprocal tariffs, which is they tariff us, we tariff them. Does that still hold it?
If it’s a tactic to get to a free trade agreement, he did it with China, he did it with Canada, he did it with Mexico, he did it with Japan very effectively in his first term. Now he’s targeting Europe to do the same. I’m OK with him doing that for Europe if the goal is to get free trade. But Tony, I don’t believe that’s his goal anymore. He has free trade with Canada. He has free trade with Mexico. He has the best free trade agreement in the world with Japan. And I’d like to talk about that. Yet he’s going to slap Japan with a 25% auto tariff. What, what, what is he thinking? I, I am at a total loss. He is on the verge of the greatest economic recovery we’ve seen in history. And he’s on his own way to make to prevent it from happening.
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