Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“The Trump tariff story keeps getting crazier. It may seem like ancient history now, but it was just over three weeks ago that Donald Trump gave us ‘Liberation Day,’ a set of massive tariffs on imports from almost every country in the world, including the uninhabited Heard and McDonald islands off the coast of Antarctica. The tariffs were billed as ‘reciprocal’ even though they bore no relationship to any tariffs or other trade barriers these countries impose on US exports. … As the markets were crashing Trump backed away on April 9, eliminating his so-called reciprocal tariffs and saying that he would lower his tariff on most countries to 10 percent. Note that this is still a very large tariff. … Trump boasted that a reason for the rollback was that 75 countries around the world had called to negotiate with him, although he refused to give the list of countries.” (04/28/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/04/28/trumps-now-you-see-them-now-you-dont-tariffs/