President Trump has repeatedly proclaimed next Wednesday, April 2, the date when the reciprocal tariffs will be announced, to be the tariff “Liberation Day”. With a little over a week away, President Trump teased that he “may give a lot of countries breaks” on the reciprocal tariffs. The details of President Trump’s plan remain unclear, but “a significantly reduced batch of tariffs” are expected to be announced next week. It is reported that the focus of the reciprocal tariffs is now on the 15 percent of countries with persistent trade imbalance with the United States, which were described as the “dirty 15” by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week.
President Trump also introduced more confusion with respect to the “regular” tariffs. He plans to announce tariffs targeting “automobiles, pharmaceuticals{,} and other industries,” which will pile on top of the reciprocal tariffs. President Trump also threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on any country that purchases oil from Venezuela.