U.S. President-elect Donald Trump looks on during the Turning Point USA AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center on December 22, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Rebecca Noble | getty images
According to the Washington Post, President-elect Donald Trump is still considering a plan to apply tariffs to all countries but focus only on specific goods and services.
Citing sources familiar with Trump’s thinking, the paper said the new approach to tariffs would likely not be as powerful as Trump’s previous ideas but would still make a big difference to global trade.
However, Trump disputed the report in a post on Truth Social.
“The Washington Post article, citing so-called anonymous sources that do not exist, incorrectly says my tariff policy will be scaled back. That is wrong,” he wrote.
The report comes amid calls for the incoming president to impose universal tariffs of 10% or 20%, targeting China and Mexico in particular, to further spike inflation.
Tariffs on a wide range of imports during Trump’s first term had little effect on raising prices and, in fact, remained in place when Joe Biden took office as president. But economists worry that things are different now and that aggressive tariffs will have a bigger impact.
The Post report said it was not yet clear which sectors would be affected by the plan, although initial discussions were underway for a variety of industrial metals, medical supplies and energy.
The United States is running a monthly trade deficit of $74 billion, which has exploded during the Covid pandemic.
