MKS sports New Jersey, the US, on October 19, 2021. Photo: Xinhua" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2025/2025-02-14/88841dba-fe88-4cff-a908-6ee802968ac9.jpeg" />

Containers are seen in the process of logistics operations at Port Newark Container Terminal and Maher Terminal owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in Bayonne, New Jersey, the US, on October 19, 2021. Photo: Xinhua

US President Donald Trump on Thursday (US time) announced his "reciprocal" tariff plan targeting US' trading partners in the latest move of his "tariff stick" since taking office, adding further uncertainty to global trade.

Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum directing his administration to determine "the equivalent of a reciprocal tariff with respect to each foreign trading partner," according to a White House release.

According to the memorandum, "it is the policy of the US to reduce our large and persistent annual trade deficit in goods and to address other unfair and unbalanced aspects of our trade with foreign trading partners."

Under the so-called "Fair and Reciprocal Plan," the administration will work "strenuously" to counter non-reciprocal trading arrangements with trading partners by determining the equivalent of a reciprocal tariff with respect to each foreign trading partner. "This approach will be of comprehensive scope, examining non-reciprocal trade relationships with all US trading partners," it said.

Howard Lutnick, Trump's Commerce Secretary nominee, said he anticipates the investigation will be complete by April 1. It is then up to Trump to decide, as of April 2, when to enact any of the new recommended tariffs, he said, CNN reported. 

On Friday, the European Commission (EC) said in a statement that it views President Trump's proposed "reciprocal" trade policy as a step in the wrong direction. "The EU remains committed to an open and predictable global trading system that benefits all partners."

By imposing tariffs, the US is taxing its own citizens, raising costs for business, stifling growth and fueling inflation. Tariffs heighten economic uncertainty and disrupt the efficiency and integration of global markets, EC stated.

"The EU will react firmly and immediately against unjustified barriers to free and fair trade, including when tariffs are used to challenge legal and non-discriminatory policies," read the EC statement.

On Thursday, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce also said in a statement that the announcement of reciprocal tariffs will further undermine the rules-based international trade order that has made much of the western world, especially the US, more prosperous and productive.

"Tariffs are taxes. They raise the cost of goods and services for citizens. They are not - as the President (Trump) claims - a source of endless revenue. The pursuit of an American industrial model from the past will result in rising costs of goods, long-term economic decline, and job losses," Candace Laing, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said in the statement.

Trump's tariffs plan "reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how the global economy works," said Scott Lincicome, a trade expert at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, according to the Associated Press on Thursday.

The US does have low average tariffs, but Trump's proclamation as written would seem designed to jack up taxes on imports, rather than pursue fairness as the US also has regulatory restrictions that limit foreign products, Lincicome said.

"It is unreasonable for the Trump administration to adjust its trade volume with other countries through so-called 'reciprocal' tariffs. When joining the WTO, member countries have already made commitments on the tariffs they apply to imports from other members. The US' move risks breaking its commitment," Huo Jianguo, a vice chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Friday.

Additionally, under the modern international trade system, balanced international trade covers not only cargo trade, but also service trade and people exchange. Thus, it is unjustifiable for the US to impose "reciprocal" tariffs on other countries just because of imbalanced cargo trade, Huo said. 

He warned that the US move would damage global economic and trade order, as other countries will respond to US tariffs.

The US' so-called "reciprocal" tariffs violate its existing trade agreements with other countries, violate the WTO's most favored nation principle, and overturn its tariff concession responsibility under the WTO framework, Li Yong, a senior research fellow at the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times on Friday.

"The 'tariff storm' of the Trump 2.0 era will have an adverse impact on the US and the world," Chen Fengying, a research fellow at the Beijing-based China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times.

For the US, tariffs will add two burdens to its economy. One is to push up the risk of inflation and increase economic uncertainty, thereby squeezing the Fed's room to lower interest rates. Second, the debt pressure will be exacerbated. The US relies on low interest rates to bear high debt, if the interest rate is difficult to reduce, the huge interest will "eat" economic growth, said Chen.

The US' new move follows its recent 25 percent tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum into the US from all countries, including its allies such as the EU and Canada.

EC president Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that tariffs are taxes - bad for business, worse for consumers. Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered - they will trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a plan to impose retaliatory tariffs on $155 billion worth of American goods coming into Canada, should Trump's initial tariff promise come to fruition, Canadian media outlet cbc.ca reported on Friday.

Trump's tariff policies also aroused domestic opposition in the US. Republican Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell in an op-ed in the Courier-Journal criticized Trump's tariffs for threatening to inflict high costs on Kentuckians.

According to a CNN report, the burden of tariffs could ultimately fall on American consumers, economists say - a potentially troubling self-inflicted wound as inflation has begun to creep higher again.