Customs dispute
Why does Trump actually do that?
Donald Trump wants to boost the US economy with high import duties. In response, the stock markets collapse, abroad threatens countermeasures. Did he calculate?
The global economy has been in turmoil since Wednesday last week. US President Donald Trump announced new high tariffs for almost all international trading partners in the United States. The reactions were largely negative: the EU threatened consistent countermeasures, the stock markets broke up by several percentage points worldwide, and many people expressed their uncertainty on social media.
As the reason for the tariff, Trump cited the support of the US companies: “This day will go into history as the day on which the American industry was born when the day has recaptured its fate, and when the day we started to make America rich again.”
Donald Trump’s reasons for the tariffs
The big idea behind the tariffs seems clear: Trump believes that they would help the domestic economy. Many experts do not share his assessment. Samina Sultan, expert in European economic policy and foreign trade at the employer -related institute of the German economy in Cologne (IW), said in: “It can be assumed that inflation will increase in the United States.” Foreclosure and isolation have rarely led to glorious times.
Trump is probably hoping that foreign companies are now investing more in the United States and even shifting their production there. His possible train of thought: High tariffs press the profits of foreign companies. If you want to continue selling profitably on the American market, you have to produce here.
In the speech that he gave after the announcement of the tariffs, the US President listed companies that have already planned to invest high sums in America. However, these decisions had already been made before his customs decree. In the past few months, the United States has become less attractive for many companies. Trump’s behavior as President seems hardly calculable, he himself could be too great economic risk.
Revenge on the global community
Another reason that Trump explicitly called: the USA was “looted, branded, raped and looted” for decades, “by near and distant nations, of friends and enemies”, as he claims.
The tariffs also seem to be a kind of revenge on international trading partners. The EU and Germany in particular are a thorn in the side. Germany has an export surplus compared to the United States, so it exports more to the United States than imported from there. This inequality disturbs the Republican.
This is apparently particularly popular with cars imported from Europe. For this he announced a flat -rate customs of 25 percent. This has been in effect to steel and aluminum since mid -March. Customs like this are intended to protect American companies from foreign competition and promote domestic production.
Commercial war as image maintenance
He also introduces tariffs to secure and promote jobs in industry, said Trump. Many American jobs in the manufacturing business are at risk from imports.
At this point, our editorial team has integrated content from Datawrapper GmbH.
Due to their data protection settings, this content was not invited to protect their privacy.
What is almost forgotten in addition to Trump’s great promises: his approval values are decreasing among the American population. At the announcement of the tariffs, he may have presented himself as a union friend and brought workers from the former industrial city of Detroit to the speaker.
He could also want to represent himself as a “strong man” who can force the whole world to the negotiating table. It will be shown whether this works. The EU recently spoke of countermeasures from the caliber of a “Bazooka”.
Source: Stern
