The Tariff Madness Isn’t Over
When Donald Trump paused many of his awful “Liberation Day” tariffs yesterday, there was some understandable relief. Some even seem to assume the tariff crisis is over. For example, Democratic Senate Leader Charles Schumer, posted on Bluesky that “History will remember April 9, 2025 as America’s actual liberation day—the day that President Trump backed down from his ridiculous tariff fiasco.”
But any celebration is premature. The truth is Trump has not fully backed down. A whopping 10% tariff on nearly every nation in the world is still going into effect immediately, along with a huge increase on tariffs for Chinese goods (up to 125%). It’s enough to impose a huge tax increase on Americans (an average of $4700 per household). And the additional “reciprocity” tariffs are only paused for 90 days, not cancelled.
Even with the pause, we now have the highest overall average effective tariff rate since 1909 – higher even than the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 that played a major role in deepening the Great Depression. And that includes high tariffs on nations like Switzerland and Israel, which don’t impose any tariffs on US goods – thereby giving the lie to the notion that Trump’s trade war is about breaking down “unfair” trade practices by other nations.
Moreover, so long as Trump seemingly has the p
Article from Reason.com
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