Tariffs, tariffs everywhere

Republican billionaire Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States, still has a few weeks before his January 20 inauguration. But even before taking office, the eccentric politician is already pointing his finger at multiple nations, promising to impose high tariffs against them. 

This rhetoric is not new. 

In 2019, during this first term, Trump already pointed his tax gun against the administration of then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. That pressure, the U.S. said at the time, was due to illegal immigration coming from Mexico. The argument is the same now. 

Besides its neighbor to the south, Mr. Trump is also threatening to impose tariffs as high as 100 percent against members of the BRICS, which includes China — but also Brazil, India, South Africa, and Russia, among others. To the president-elect, nations of the group need to be punished if they move to replace the U.S. dollar as the currency used for trade.

But experts and economists are skeptical. The unleashing of an indiscriminate tax war, they say, could bear negative impacts on regional commerce, affecting numerous jobs and markets, as well as stable diplomacy.

Will Mr. Trump’s make his tax strike?

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