President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing his team to develop a comprehensive plan for restoring fairness in U.S. trade relationships and countering non-reciprocal trade agreements. “The ‘Fair and Reciprocal Plan,’” the White House said in a statement, “will seek to correct longstanding imbalances in international trade and ensure fairness across the board.”
The United States is one of the most open economies in the world. But for too long, it has been on the losing end compared with its trading partners, who close their markets to U.S. exports through tariffs and taxes. “This lack of reciprocity is unfair and contributes to our large and persistent annual trade deficit,” wrote the White House.
President Trump extolled the plan’s justice and simplicity:
“Whatever they charge us, we’re charging them. So, it works out very well. It’s a beautiful, simple system. And we don’t have to worry about, ‘Gee, we’re charging too much or too little.’”
The White House cited several examples of unbalanced tariffs that have hurt U.S. trade: among them, the 10 percent the European Union imposes on imported cars, compared to the 2.5 percent imposed by the United States; the 18 percent tariff on ethanol imports imposed by Brazil compared to the 2.5 percent by the U.S. “Thanks to the proliferation on non-reciprocal barriers in just the last few years,” the White House noted, “the U.S. now runs a trade deficit in agriculture worth around $40 billion in 2024.”
“Reciprocal makes tariffs really fair,” said President Trump. He emphasized, however, there is one sure way for countries to avoid U.S. tariffs altogether:
“They can build a factory here, a plant or whatever it might be here, and that includes the medical, that includes cars, that includes chips and semiconductors. That includes everything. If you build here, you have no tariffs whatsoever. And I think that’s what’s going to happen. I think our country is going to be flooded with jobs.”
President Trump said his order on reciprocal tariffs is “one of the most important things” he’s ever signed. And not only is it going to make the United States stronger, “It could make other countries strong too,” he declared. “You know, other countries want to have a strong United States. They want to have a strong America. And I think it’s going to make us very, very strong.”
