US President Donald Trump speaks during an event announcing new prices in Rose Garden at the White House in Washington on April 2, 2025.
SOMODEVILLA chip | Getty Images
President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday an aggressive and large -scale pricing policy, leaving many American economists and commercial partners to wonder how the White House calculated its prices.
Trump’s plan has established a reference rate of 10% on almost all countries, although many nations like China, Vietnam and Taiwan are subject to much higher rates. During a ceremony On Wednesday, the Rose Garden, Trump organized a poster board that describes the prices that the administration supports is “billed” in the United States, as well as the “reduced” prices that the United States would implement in response.
These reciprocal prices represent mainly half of what the Trump administration said that each country has billed in the United States, for example, the poster declared that China invoiced a price of 67% and that the United States will implement a reciprocal rate of 34% in response.
However, a report from the Cato Institute said that weighted average rate rates depending on trade in most countries are much lower than that of the Trump administration. The report is based on weighted average rights according to the trade of the World Trade Organization in 2023, the most recent year available.
The Cato Institute said that the average rate of weighted according to trade in 2023 from China was 3%, not the 67% of the administration.
The administration said that the European Union has a rate of 39%in the United States, but the Cato report said that the average rate of weighted in 2023 weighted in 2023 was 2.7%.
In another example, the administration said that India imposes a rate of 52% in the United States, but Cato noted that the average rate rate in 2023 weighted in 2023 in 2023 was 12%.
Many users on social networks this week quickly noticed that the Trump administration seemed to have calculated by Divide the trade deficit by imports From a given country to arrive at prices for everyone. This is an unusual approach because it suggests that the United States has taken into account the trade deficit of goods but ignored the trade in services.
The office of the US trade representative, in a press release, said that calculating the combined effects of the rate, regulations, tax and other policies in various countries “can be projected by calculating the rate level in accordance with the conduct of bilateral commercial deficits”.
“”If trade deficits are persistent due to policies and fundamentals tariff and non -tariffs, the rate rate in accordance with the compensation of these policies and fundamental is reciprocal and fair, “the USTR said in the press release.
