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President-elect Donald Trump may be narrowing his plans for a tariff on everything entering the US to ones “only on certain sectors deemed critical to national or economic security,” the Washington Post reported Monday, in a story that quickly drew a denial from the incoming president.
Three unnamed “people familiar with the matter” told the Post that Trump’s staff have been discussing tariffs on imports in “several key sectors” on products that Trump wants made in the US. That includes metals used by defense manufacturers, “critical medical supplies” like syringes and drug ingredients, and the batteries and rare minerals the energy industry uses. Trump posted on Truth Social that the article “incorrectly states that my tariff policy will be pared back. That is wrong.”
According to the Post, “the potential change reflects a recognition that Trump’s initial plans—which would have been immediately noticeable in the price of food imports and cheap consumer electronics—could prove politically unpopular and disruptive,” and “may also partially reflect growing fears about the persistence of inflation in the coming year.” Sector-specific tariffs, by contrast, would be “a little bit easier for everybody to stomach out the gate” before expanding to universal tariffs, a source told the Post.
What we don’t know? Most things. Will Trump change his mind, as sources told the Post he’s apt to do? If he does go with the sector-based tariffs, will those replace his other proposed tariffs—such as a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican products or one on Chinese imports that could exceed 60%—or will he try to implement them all?