Trade dispute Trump signs memorandum on the introduction of "reciprocal tariffs"
US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Thursday to prepare for so-called reciprocal tariffs. The memorandum published by the White House complains that the USA has been treated "unfairly" by trading partners for years.
14.02.2025, 00:20
14.02.2025, 00:22
SDA
This is one of the causes of the United States' annual deficit in international trade, according to the memorandum. With the memorandum signed in the White House on Thursday, Trump instructed several senior government officials to carry out a comprehensive review of US trade relations with other countries and thus lay the foundations for the new tariffs.
Speaking to the media in the Oval Office, Trump criticized the fact that the USA's allies "often behave worse than our enemies" when it comes to trade issues, criticizing the European Union (EU) in particular. The EU is "absolutely brutal" in its trade relations with the USA.
According to the memorandum, the review of trade relations should not only include tariffs imposed by other countries, but also other "unfair" and "discriminatory" practices. These include subsidies, regulations for US companies operating abroad and taxes.
Trump announced the measure
As a White House official explained, measures tailored to the individual trading partners will then be taken on the basis of the revision. The review of trade relations will take "a few weeks or a few months, but not much longer than that", said this employee, who wished to remain anonymous according to the AFP news agency.
The term "reciprocal tariffs" means that the tariff imposed by a country on a US product is levied by the US on an identical product from that country. Trump had already announced this type of tariff during the election campaign: "An eye for an eye, tariff for tariff, exactly the same amount," he said at the time.
Decree not signed
Early on Thursday morning (local time), Trump wrote in his online service Truth Social that this day would be a "big one" and once again announced the "reciprocal tariffs". However, Trump did not later sign the decree imposing these tariffs. With the memorandum, however, he initiated concrete preparations for such tariffs.
On Monday, Trump had already imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which are to apply from March 12.
