President-elect Donald Trump might alter his plan for across-the-board tariffs of 10 or 20% on all nations, according to the Washington Post.
The plan is still moving forward, but the tariffs may target "critical imports," the Post reported, citing three people familiar with the matter. Trump's team is discussing tariffs on industrial metals like steel, iron, aluminum and copper, medical supplies and energy production, per the Post.
Trump denied the report. “The story in the Washington Post, quoting so-called anonymous sources, which don’t exist, incorrectly states that my tariff policy will be pared back. That is wrong,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
The revised plan would represent a significant shift from Trump's campaign pledge to enact tariffs on everything coming into the U.S. He had vowed to impose 25% tariffs on goods coming from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10% tariff on imports from China unless the countries stemmed the flow of migrants and drugs into the U.S.
But tariffs could be politically unpopular in the U.S., where economists have warned they would cause a spike in consumer prices and inflation. Trump has said he "can't guarantee" the tariffs won't raise prices for Americans, who cited the economy as their top issue in the Nov. 5 election.
His scaled-back plan is still "strikingly aggressive," the Post reported. Trump has said the tariffs are needed to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.
Some countries have pushed back. In December, the Canadian province of Ontario threatened to restrict electricity exports to the U.S. Canada retaliated against Trump's tariffs in his first term by putting billions of new duties against the U.S.
Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said in November that a 25% tariff would hit the automotive sector and raise vehicle prices for consumers by thousands of dollars. The industry represents nearly 25% of all North American vehicle production, per Reuters.
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