Major errors in Trump’s presentation | EUROtoday

Dthe work truffled with nonsense. Donald Trump introduced new reciprocal customs tariffs starting from 10 % to 50 % relying on the nation this Wednesday, April 2, arousing a world shields. It shall be a “kind reciprocity”, assures the tenant of the White House, who represents, in response to his calculations, about half of the commerce and non-commercial boundaries utilized by overseas nations. In element, imported European merchandise shall be taxed at 20 %. A determine that will increase to 34 % for China.

According to a doc from Washington, “reciprocal customs duties are calculated as the tariff rate necessary to balance bilateral trade deficits between the United States and each of its business partners”. But these new costs have anomalies. Experts and observers notably criticize the calculation technique: the White House figures appear to correspond in actuality to the commerce deficit divided by American exports.

On X, American journalist James Surowieck demonstrated the calculation carried out by the Trump administration, citing Indonesia for example. “So now we have a commerce deficit of $ 17.9 billion with Indonesia. Its exports to us quantity to $ 28 billion. $ 17.90/$ 28 = 64 %, which Trump claims to be the customs duties charge that Indonesia imposes on us. It is a unprecedented nonsense, “he deplored.

Taxes also target islands … populated with penguins

In addition to this simplistic calculation method, other singularities have been noted in the table of the American administration. These new taxes are indeed aimed at “the entire world”, up to islands devoid of inhabitants. Among the targeted territories in this trade war, The Guardian Note that sterile volcanic islands near the Antarctica, covered with glaciers and housing penguins, will be taxed at 10 %.

Read too “No must search for: there is no such thing as a financial logic at Trump” The newspaper thus quotes the Heard and McDonald Islands, of the Australian territories. “No place on Earth is bound,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. These isolated territories are not the only ones to be in the viewfinder of customs prices. According to the HuffPost, the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard or the Volcanic Island Jan Mayen will be taxed by 10 and 15 % respectively on imported products.

An American military base taxed

On the side of the Indian Ocean, it is American soldiers who risk paying these taxes. Indeed, they will apply up to 10 % in the “British territories of the Indian Ocean”, corresponding to the Chagos archipelago. However, the population of the island is only composed by the Diego Garcia strategic military base, which is rented by United Kingdom in the United States.

“Does anybody can warn Donald Trump that the one inhabitants within the British Indian Ocean territories is the American base of Diego Garcia?” Asked on X Oliver Cooper, a British curator. The American president “taxes an American base,” he quips.

Within the European Union, it’s the French abroad departments and territories which might be handled otherwise. Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and Mayotte, thought of fiscally as third -party territories, will see their taxes improve by 10 %, in opposition to 20 % for the EU. On the opposite hand, Reunion, which advantages from the identical authorized standing, shall be taxed at 37 %. An even heavier sanction for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon: 50 %. French Polynesia shall be taxed at 10 %.