White House Narrows April 2 Tariffs
Tariffs on industrial sectors like cars and microchips are no longer expected to be announced on that date, though major trading partners will still be hit with so-called reciprocal tariffs
The administration is now focusing on applying tariffs to about 15% of nations with persistent trade imbalances with the U.S.—a so-called “dirty 15,” as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put it last week. Those nations, which Bessent said account for most of the U.S.’s foreign trade, will be especially hard-hit with higher tariffs, said people with knowledge of the matter, though other nations could be given more modest tariffs as well.
Though it will hit most imports coming into the U.S., the administration’s “dirty 15” approach is still a narrower one than many observers anticipated when Trump ordered federal agencies to design reciprocal tariffs in February, directing them to evaluate trading relationships with virtually every U.S. trading partner. The White House had previously considered grouping trading partners into three tiers of high, medium and low tariffs, but turned away from that plan in recent weeks in favor of giving each targeted nation an individualized tariff number.
Industry officials who have talked with the White House about sectoral tariffs had been even more pessimistic about exemptions, saying they haven’t been able to glean how carve-outs would be made; one said he was told that there would be few, if any, exceptions to the tariffs.
Trump told oil executives last week during a meeting at the White House that he didn’t want to grant exceptions on tariffs, according to a person who attended the meeting, but said he would consider occasional ones.
When one attendee asked about steel and aluminum exemptions, Trump wouldn’t commit to any, this person said. When U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer spoke to the oil executives, he said he wasn’t interested in doing exemptions because they felt like they granted too many in the first Trump administration. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also told the oil-industry executives that he didn’t expect exemptions, the attendee said.
Some lobbyists are advising their ...
