Trade economists have poured scorn on the crude methodology used by Donald Trump to calculate the list of “reciprocal” global tariffs imposed by his administration.
Under the US president’s plan set out on Wednesday night, a baseline tariff of 10 per cent will be levied on all imports from all countries excluding Canada and Mexico, while countries with larger trade deficits with the US were hit with much higher numbers.
The formula used to calculate the tariffs, released by the US trade representative, took each country’s trade deficit in goods with the US as a proxy for its alleged unfair practices, then divided it by the amount of goods imported into the US from that country.