The White House did not include adversarial nations like Russia, North Korea, Cuba, and Belarus in the new “Liberation Day” tariffs, a decision which Trump administration officials defended.
An unnamed White House official told The Hill on Thursday that those nations “are not subject to the Reciprocal Tariff Executive Order because they are already facing extremely high tariffs, and our previously imposed sanctions preclude any meaningful trade with these countries.”
The official continued by noting that Trump “recently threatened to impose strong sanctions on Russia.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt likewise told Axios on Wednesday that Russia was omitted because American sanctions already “preclude any meaningful trade.”
She added that Cuba, Belarus, and North Korea were not included because they already experience high tariffs and sanctions.
Trump hiked tariffs on dozens of countries after revealing that he would seek to reciprocate the tariffs other nations already impose on American goods.
He has long voiced concern that the past several decades of trade policy have resulted in the erosion of the American manufacturing base.
Trump also relied on tariffs during his first term to encourage domestic manufacturing and apply targeted pressure on certain countries.
A fact sheet from the White House published on Wednesday said that “foreign trade and economic practices have created a national emergency.”
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“Large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits have led to the hollowing out of our manufacturing base,” the fact sheet said.
The document also said trade deficits “resulted in a lack of incentive to increase advanced domestic manufacturing capacity; undermined critical supply chains; and rendered our defense-industrial base dependent on foreign adversaries.”
Trump issued the new tariffs using his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.
All countries were subjected to a baseline 10 percent tariff, which will formally take effect on April 5.
He also imposed “an individualized reciprocal higher tariff on the countries with which the United States has the largest trade deficits.”
Those individualized tariffs will enter into effect on April 9.
“These tariffs will remain in effect until such a time as President Trump determines that the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying nonreciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated,” the fact sheet added.
“He is the first President in modern history to stand strong for hardworking Americans by asking other countries to follow the golden rule on trade: Treat us like we treat you,” the document said.
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