The Coming Gong Show Of Reciprocal Trade, Part 3

In Part 2 we demonstrated that the Donald will get no cigar if he attempts to impose “reciprocal tariffs” at the country-wide level. That’s because after six decades of global trade liberalization, tariffs have been systematically reduced to very low levels or outright eliminated—even as MFN (most favored nation) coverage and free trade areas have flourished.

We therefore calculated the effective tariff levels on the 12 major product lines listed below in terms of combined US exports of these products to 31 of its largest customers outside of the North American free trade zone. These included the EU-27 nations plus Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and India. What we found was that the tariff rates levied on US goods by these major US trading partners were virtually identical to the tariff rates the US levies on these same products.