![www.usatoday.com](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fgcdn%2Fauthoring%2Fauthoring-images%2F2025%2F02%2F12%2FUSAT%2F78479912007-2198558286.jpg%3Fcrop%3D5999%2C3375%2Cx0%2Cy312%26width%3D3200%26height%3D1801%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp&hash=6c1a084ef9a39325cd93bb58f6addaa8&return_error=1)
Trump moves to slap tariffs on nearly every nation, boosting trade war
In an escalation of his trade war, President Donald Trump moved to put tariffs on nations that levy taxes and fees that hurt U.S. businesses.
www.usatoday.com
From the press conference:
- We will put a tariff on any country who tariffs us, if for example Brazil has a tariff on ethanol, we will tariff Brazil for ethanol too.
- Any country who uses a VAT or value-added-tax system is placing a tariff on the U.S. and we will respond with tariffs against them by the same percentage as their VAT
- It will not be accepted by the U.S. to avoid tariffs by sending merchandise using a different country
- Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has been tasked with analyzing each country's tariffs and tax systems. Lutnick will go through each country one-by-one and determine the appropriate reciprocal tariffs. Reciprocal tariffs will be added country by country as analysis is done.
- "May take a few weeks because there's a lot of data to analyze"