Ahead of President Trump’s next big trade move, his administration invited companies to weigh in on the economic barriers they faced abroad.
The list of complaints was both sprawling and specific. In hundreds of letters submitted to the administration in recent weeks, producers of uranium, shrimp, T-shirts and steel highlighted the unfair trade treatment they faced, in hopes of bending the president’s trade agenda in their favor. The complaints varied from Brazil’s high tariffs on ethanol and pet food, to India’s high levies on almonds and pecans, to Japan’s longstanding barriers to American potatoes.
Mr. Trump has promised to overhaul the global trading system on April 2, when he plans to impose what he is calling “reciprocal tariffs” that will match the levies and other policies that countries impose on American exports. The president has taken to calling this “liberation day,” arguing that it will end years of other countries “ripping us off.”
“It’s a liberation day for our country, because we’re going to be getting back a lot of the wealth that we so foolishly gave up to other countries,” Mr. Trump said last week.
The president had floated the idea of also announcing sector-specific tariffs on cars, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors that same day. On Monday, White House officials said that those additional tariffs had not yet been set for April 2 but that the situation remained very fluid.
One official said that separate tariffs on cars could still happen on April 2. Another official said that if tariffs on cars and other sectors did not happen on April 2, they could still be imposed at a later date.