WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order that lets some trading partners from some of the tariffs that his administration has put in place. The White House said on Saturday that the order, called “Potential Tariff Adjustments for Aligned Partners” (PTAAP), would take effect on Monday.
A White House memo says that the order applies to trading partners who “make a deal with the United States that helps ease the national emergency related to the trade deficit” in order to “earn a reduction of reciprocal tariffs.” The exemptions apply to more than 45 types of items, such as industrial exports like nickel, gold, and other metals, as well as chemicals and pharmaceutical components.
The Trump administration’s goal is to change the way the world trades and lower the U.S. goods trade deficit. This new directive is part of that plan. The White House says that the President’s tariff measures have been “in the interests of the American people” and have “generated significant investment into the United States, strengthening the U.S. economy while addressing unfair trade practices.”
The Factsheet that comes with the executive order also goes over the reasons for some of the administration’s other recent tariff measures. Some of these are:
India: A 25% tax on goods coming from India because it keeps buying energy from Russia, which the White House says makes it harder for the U.S. to stop Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
China: A 20% tax on the supply chain for synthetic opioids.
Mexico: A 25% tax on drugs that come across the southern border illegally.
Canada has a 35% tax on pharmaceuticals that cross the northern border illegally.
The White House said that Trump is “incentivizing manufacturing on American soil and defending our industries” by putting tariffs on countries that it considers “nonreciprocal trade practices.” This new executive order seems to be a mix of carrots and sticks: it says that nations that are prepared to talk and change their trade practices to match the interests of the U.S. government would not have to pay the tariffs.