On Wednesday, President Trump announced a slate of reciprocal tariffs to be imposed on nations around the world. These included a 10% tariff on virtually all other nations which is set to take effect on April 5, and additional tariffs above the 10% on nations with which the United States has the highest trade deficits. Those additional tariffs are scheduled to take effect on April 9. Many of the additional tariff rates were set at roughly 50% of the tariffs charged on U.S. imports by each specific country involved. The tariffs already in existence on steel, aluminum and autos were not changed by the announcement.

Importantly, the Executive Order laying out the tariffs and White House fact sheet (which are available here) indicated that goods from Mexico and Canada were not subject to the new tariffs and that there were exceptions for energy products. NACS has advocated strongly that oil, refined products and renewable motor fuels should not be subject to the new tariffs – particularly products from Canada and Mexico. Those products, including energy products, which are qualified under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) will continue to be imported without tariffs as they are today. Those products which are not qualified under USMCA will continue to see 25% tariffs except that energy products from Canada which are not qualified under USMCA will continue to have a 10% tariff rate.

“We appreciate the Administration recognizing the unique role of petroleum products in trade and overall consumer prices as part of this announcement,” said Jon Taets, NACS director of government relations.

Specific new tariff rates noted in the announcement included a 34% tariff rate on China and a 20% tariff rate on the European Union. The highest rate announced was on Cambodia, which charges a total of a 97% on U.S. products, at 49%. Countries like the United Kingdom, Brazil, Singapore and Australia receive the lowest 10% base rate due to the level of rates they charge on U.S. products.

Following the announcements of new tariff rates, the President ran through a series of announcements about private companies returning operations to the United States. The President claimed such announcements would amount to a little over $6 trillion in new economic benefits.