Liberation or the Fall of the U.S?
By Tanzila & Pelden
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On April 2nd, President Trump released a set of reciprocal tariffs on all U.S. trading partners starting a potential trade war and causing America's stock market to lose $5 TRILLION in value! This is everything about these tariffs and how they affect us!
What are Tariffs and Who pays for them?
Tariffs are a fee set by the government on goods imported from another country, making those goods more expensive to buy.
There are a lot of misconceptions about who pays for tariffs, but ultimately American companies pay these extra fees.
These tariffs can promote domestic trading but also increase the price of goods for consumers.
Meaning in the end YOU end up paying for the tariffs.
During Trump's campaign he promised all these tariffs in order to grow a ‘better economy’ and labeled this as Liberation Day. He said, "April 2, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again."
Why does Trump claim this and what are his goals?
The Trump administration claims that their trading partners (all countries who trade goods with America) have been unfairly taking advantage of their kindness. For example, in America you commonly see cars from Japan because of the low tariffs set on Japanese goods. However, in Japan you rarely see American cars due to the high tariffs set on America by the Japanese government. In other words, other countries have tariffs on American goods, making it very expensive for other countries to buy American goods. The Trump administration sees this as other countries taking advantage of them since there are few foreign consumers of American products, while they flourish from the high number of American consumers.
They state that these baseline tariffs (a set amount of tariffs set for all US trading partners) and reciprocal tariffs (matching the tariffs other countries set on America) would prevent countries from taking advantage of America, hoping they would respond in fair and reasonable tariffs. Their major goal was “fair trade.” Their belief is that bringing manufacturing to America will create a shift from paying workers overseas to more domestic trading and production. This would then give Americans more jobs and boost employment.
So, what's the problem with these tariffs?
These ‘reciprocal’ tariffs are NOT reciprocal! – Trump added extra taxes on goods coming into the U.S from other countries, but did not always match what those countries were charging on American goods going out to them.
These baseline tariffs go against free trade agreements (no tariffs set) other countries had with the US such as Chile, Australia, Peru, and South Korea
3. Economists, banks, and financial institutions say the formula used to calculate this doesn't even make sense!
A trade ear (negotiating tariffs and taxes on goods) is at risk!
Risk of a recession.
The penguins aren’t safe either ! Trump imposed tariffs on islands near Antarctica and Australia where no people live, mostly penguins.
What's a Recession?
Period of economic slowdown/decline
Rise in unemployment
Laying people off
Decrease in GDP
Losing employment
Decrease in household income
Decrease in consumer spending/demand
Rise in inflation; rise in costs and products- (for instance egg pricing suddenly increasing)
How will this affect YOU?
Expect rise in prices for foreign goods and services
Increased prices in imported cars
Less variety in goods (due to increased prices)
NEW UPDATES!!
Donald Trump reversed these tariffs and dropped tariffs down to a universal 10% rate for all trading partners EXCEPT China.
China’s tariff rate is said to jump to 145%
Trump acknowledged his tariffs might cause a recession and in fear of a depression, he paused all the tariffs for 90 days.
This is updating every second! Keep your eyes on the news!!
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