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    Trump Prepares to Take On the US Trade Deficit, a Familiar Nemesis

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    The trade deficit has long drawn the president’s ire. Now, he’s preparing to take it on again.To President Trump, one economic number represents everything that is wrong with the global economy: America’s trade deficit.That deficit is the total value of what the United States imports from other nations, minus its exports to other countries. The fact that America runs a trade deficit reflects how the nation’s appetite for foreign goods now far outpaces what U.S. factories and farms send abroad.Official data set for release on Wednesday morning is expected to show that the U.S. trade deficit widened to nearly $1.2 trillion in 2024. For Mr. Trump, the fact that the United States imports more goods than it exports is a sign of economic weakness and evidence that the world is taking advantage of America. While the country’s trade deficit has been widening for years, that gap could end up being a key reason Mr. Trump decides to impose tariffs on Europe, China, Canada, Mexico and other governments.Mr. Trump rolled out a dramatic series of trade actions against Canada, Mexico and China in recent days, signing executive orders to put tariffs on all three nations in what he said was an effort to stem the flow of drugs and migrants to the United States.But he also cited the trade deficit as he talked about tariffs writ large, making clear that the gap between what America sells and what it buys remains top of mind for Mr. Trump.

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    America’s Trade Deficits and Surpluses With Other Countries
    Note: Data is adjusted for inflation and shows 2023 trade in goods, the latest available full year of data.Source: Census BureauBy The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    China Strikes Back After Trump Imposes 10% Tariff on Goods

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    After a 10 percent tariff on Chinese products took effect on Tuesday, China announced retaliatory measures, including tariffs and an investigation of Google.Beijing responded swiftly on Tuesday to the tariffs President Trump had promised, announcing a fusillade of countermeasures targeting American companies and imports of critical products.Mr. Trump’s 10 percent tariff on all Chinese products went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the result of an executive order issued over the weekend aimed at pressuring Beijing to crack down on fentanyl shipments into the United States.The Chinese government came back with a series of retaliatory steps, including additional tariffs on liquefied natural gas, coal, farm machinery and other products from the United States. It also said it had implemented restrictions on the export of certain critical minerals, many of which are used in the production of high-tech products.In addition, Chinese market regulators said they had launched an antimonopoly investigation into Google. Google is blocked from China’s internet, but the move may disrupt the company’s dealings with Chinese companies.The U.S. tariffs, which Mr. Trump said on Monday were an “opening salvo,” come on top of levies that the president imposed during his first term. Many Chinese products already faced a 10 or 25 percent tariff, and the move adds a 10 percent tariff to more than $400 billion of goods that Americans purchase from China each year.Mr. Trump had been planning to hit America’s three largest trading partners, Canada, Mexico and China, with tariffs of varying degrees. But after days of frantic negotiations, Mr. Trump agreed to pause the tariffs on Mexico and Canada for 30 days after the Canadian and Mexican governments promised to step up their oversight of fentanyl and the border.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Wields U.S. Power With Unclear Economic Consequences

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    President Trump is brandishing the U.S. economy like a weapon, threatening to put more than a trillion dollars of trade on the line with economic wars on multiple fronts.In a high-stakes confrontation that lasted over the weekend and into Monday, Mr. Trump promised to put tariffs on the United States’ closest trading partners, which are together responsible for more than 40 percent of American imports, to try to force them to accede to his demands.Mr. Trump was pushing Canada, Mexico and China to stop flows of migrants at the border — one of his major domestic policy issues — as well as to stem shipments of deadly drugs, and offer the United States better terms when it comes to trade relationships.Both Canada and Mexico earned slight reprieves on Monday after Mr. Trump agreed to delay tariffs of 25 percent — which were supposed to go into effect on Tuesday — for a month. That decision came after President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico promised to reinforce the U.S.-Mexico border with 10,000 members of its National Guard. Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, said Canada would appoint a fentanyl czar, launch a joint strike force to combat organized crime and list cartels as terrorists, among other steps.China has not received any such reprieve and Mr. Trump on Monday said that the 10 percent tariffs that will go into effect on Tuesday were simply an “opening salvo.”Speaking from the Oval Office, the president also made clear that he would use tariffs liberally to get other governments to give him what he wants, essentially saying he would leverage America’s economic strength to bully other nations.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares199 Views

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    Trump’s Trade Move Could Increase Costs for Many Online Goods

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    President Trump’s decision to impose hefty tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China included a little-noticed but significant change to how online purchases will be taxed when they enter the United States.One provision of Mr. Trump’s executive order will increase costs for more than 80 percent of U.S. e-commerce imports. The decision could shift the landscape for online sales from Chinese vendors like Shein and Temu that have swiftly expanded their market share by sending cheap goods into the United States.The president’s order erased a workaround that many companies have taken advantage of in recent years, particularly since Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese products in his first term. The provision, known as the de minimis exception, allowed certain products that were sent directly to consumers from online platforms to come into the United States without facing tariffs, a huge tax advantage.This obscure provision of trade law underpins major business models. Shein, Temu and many sellers on Amazon have used the de minimis exemption to bypass tariffs. The exemption allows packages to be shipped from other countries without paying tariffs, as long as the shipments do not exceed $800 per recipient per day.But critics say the de minimis measure has also helped fuel an American drug crisis. Importers who use de minimis do not have to provide as much information to U.S. Customs and Border Protection as they do with other packages, for ease of processing. That means drugs and the precursors used to make them could be more easily shipped into the United States without the government catching them.De minimis stems from a century-old trade law that was originally intended for shipments that would be too trivial to merit the attention of customs. But the use of this provision has exploded in popularity.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares149 Views

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    Who Pays for Tariffs? Here’s What You Need to Know.

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    President Trump is moving forward with extensive tariffs on America’s closest trading partners. Beginning Tuesday, companies bringing products into the United States from Canada and Mexico will pay a 25 percent tariff; importers bringing products in from China will pay an additional 10 percent on top of existing levies.The president has insisted that these tariffs will not increase prices for American consumers and that if anyone pays the cost, it will be foreign countries.But a simple review of how tariffs work suggests that is not the case. Here’s what to know about who pays.Who pays for tariffs up front?A tariff is an extra surcharge put onto a good when it comes into the United States. It is the so-called importer of record — the companies responsible for importing that product — that physically pays tariffs to the federal government.The tariff fee of 10 percent or 25 percent is often charged not on the full sticker price of the good you see at the store, but a lower import price that companies pay to buy a good from abroad, before they mark up the price for sale at a store.Many importers of record are enrolled in the government’s electronic payment program, and have tariff fees automatically deducted from their bank accounts as they bring products into the country. Tariff revenue is collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, though Mr. Trump has floated the idea of creating an entirely new agency to deal with money earned from his tariffs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares129 Views

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    What Is IEEPA, the Law Trump Used to Impose Tariffs?

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    President Trump said on Saturday that he would impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China using a decades-old law that gives the president sweeping economic powers during a national emergency.“This was done through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “We need to protect Americans, and it is my duty as President to ensure the safety of all.”On his first day back in office, Mr. Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border. On Saturday, he said he would expand the scope of the emergency and hit the country’s three largest trading partners with tariffs because they had “failed” to do more to stop the flow of migrants or illegal fentanyl into the United States.In recent weeks, Mr. Trump had threatened to use the law to impose steep tariffs on other countries like Colombia, which eventually agreed to allow U.S. military planes to fly deportees into the country after Mr. Trump said he would seek tariffs on all Colombian imports.“This is a very broad tool that affords the president a lot of latitude to impose potentially really substantial economic costs on partners,” said Philip Luck, the economics program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former deputy chief economist at the State Department during the Biden administration. “This is a pretty big stick you can use.”What is IEEPA?The International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 gives the president broad powers to regulate various financial transactions upon declaring a national emergency. Under the law, presidents can take a wide variety of economic actions “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy or economy” of the country.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 138 Shares189 Views

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    See How Much the U.S. Trades With China, Canada and Mexico

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    The Trump administration said on Saturday it would impose stiff tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China — three countries that for decades have been the United States’ largest trading partners. Source: Census Bureau Notes: Countries with at least a 2 percent share in 2024, through November, are shown, accounting for about three-quarters of imports. The […] More

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    Trump Will Hit Mexico, Canada and China With Tariffs

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    President Trump plans to impose stiff tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China on Saturday, a move aimed at pressuring America’s largest trading partners into accepting more migrants and halting the flow of migrants and drugs into the United States.Mr. Trump will put a 25 percent tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada, along with a 10 percent tariff on Chinese products, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a news briefing Friday.Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Mr. Trump said the tariffs were punishment for Canada, Mexico and China allowing drugs and migrants to flood into the United States.Mr. Trump’s decision to hit America’s trading partners with tariff could mark the beginning of a disruptive and damaging trade war, one that is far messier than the conflict that defined Mr. Trump’s first term.Back then, Mr. Trump placed tariffs on nearly two-thirds of Chinese imports, resulting in China hitting the U.S. with levies of its own. Mr. Trump also imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, inciting retaliation from the European Union, Mexico and Canada.While the tariffs against allies were viewed as controversial, they were relatively limited in scope. It remains to be seen exactly what products Mr. Trump’s new tariffs apply to, but the president has implied that they would be expansive and cover imports from Canada and Mexico, close allies of the United States.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More