Trump slaps at least 10% tariffs on all imports in Declaration of Economic Independence: Half of what they could be

WASHINGTON — President Trump declared a national emergency Wednesday to impose his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs on all imports — with a new 10% baseline rate and harsher levies on dozens of other countries including key allies such as members of the European Union, Japan and Israel.Trump called the move a “Declaration of Economic Independence” and waited until stock trading ended for the day at 4 p.m.to announce the details.“This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history.

It’s our Declaration of Economic Independence,” the president, 78, said in the Rose Garden.“Factories will come roaring back into our country — and you see it happening already.We will supercharge our domestic industrial base.

We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers.”“Ultimately more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.This will be indeed be the golden age of America.”The new 10% baseline rate is roughly triple the average US tariff rate before Trump reclaimed power and will take effect Saturday.Specific reciprocal duties will take effect April 9 — including a 20% duty on the European Union, 24% on Japan and 17% on Israel.Trump railed against various foreign tariffs and non-tariff barriers, citing Australian restrictions on US beef imports, EU bans on American poultry, Japanese fees on rice imports and South Korean car-sale policies.“From 1789 to 1913, we were a tariff-backed nation and the United States was proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been,” the president said.“In 1913, for reasons unknown to mankind, they established the income tax so that citizens, rather than foreign countries, would start paying the money necessary to run our government.

Then in 1929, it all came to a very abrupt end with a Great Depression, and it would have never happened if they had stayed with the tariff policy,”The president added: “If imposing tariffs and p...