Trump promises “much greater” tariffs than 2.5% in key areas

The President Donald Trump He said he wants to promulgate duty General that are “much older”That 2.5%, the last of a series of signals that he sent on Monday that he is preparing generalized levies to reform the United States supply chains.

“I have what is going to be in mind, but I will not announce it yet, but it will be enough to protect our country“, said Trump To journalists Monday night.

When asked about a report that the new secretary of the TreasureScott Besent, I was in favor of starting with a global rate of 2.5%, Trump He said he didn’t believe Besent supported that and that he wouldn’t do it either. He said he wanted a rate “much greater“That 2.5%.

Trump He spoke aboard the Air Force One while returning to Washington, DC, of ​​a speech in Florida in which he also promised tariffs to specific sectors, such as semiconductors, pharmaceutical products, steel, copper and aluminum.

He also strongly suggested that they could also impose them on the cars of Canada and Mexico, countries that have already threatened with general tariffs of 25% as of February 1.

“As tariffs go up to other countries, taxes will lower US workers and companies and a large number of jobs and factories will return home”Trump said Monday at a meeting of the Republicans of the House of Representatives in his doral tourist complex, in Miami, during a speech in which he praised the American approach to elevated tariffs at the beginning of the 20th century.

“Remember, again, the word ‘tariff’. We are going to protect our people and our companies, and we will protect our country, with tariffs”Trump added. It is said that it had previously evaluated tariffs up to 20%.

He dollar He went up to all the main currencies after Trump’s latest threats. He copper and the aluminum They fell to the threat of sector tariffs.

Monday’s statements to legislators are the last sign that Trump considers tariffs as a pillar of the republican impulse to also reform the fiscal system. He reiterated a call to Republicans to reduce the tax rate for companies that manufacture their products in the United States from 21% to 15%.

Together, Trump wants to add costs to imports through tariffs and reduce taxes to national production, although the small print is not clear: the American manufacturing industry depends largely on imported parts and materials.

The threat of Trump to impose tariffs on semiconductors also occurs hours after investors for the Chinese artificial intelligence startup Deepseek shook the markets and erase billions of the stock market capitalization of Nvidia Corp.

Trump has argued that tariffs will help maintain and develop American chip manufacturing compared to a subsidy program defended by the former president Joe Biden.