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Comment by dmvdoug | Hacker News Reader

Well, regardless of whatever you think about truly reciprocal tariffs, the Trump Tariffs are not that. They released the formula they used to calculate the levels and it has nothing to do with other countries’ trade barriers. It’s like literally trade deficit with that country divided by imports. Which is utterly unhinged, with no basis in theory or reality. But again, even if you disagree, that is not the definition of a reciprocal tariff.

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A reciprocal tariff is a tax or trade restriction that one country places on another in response to similar actions taken by that country. The idea behind reciprocal tariffs is to create balance in trade between nations. If one country raises tariffs on goods from another, the affected country might respond by imposing its own tariffs on imports from the first country. This response is meant to protect local businesses, preserve jobs, and fix trade imbalances.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/reciprocal-t...

I think you are arguing that they aren't equal tariffs. I would agree with that. They do seem to be reciprocal though, because the countries imposed tariffs on our goods of some sort.

There may not be zero tariffs in other countries, but the amount calculated by the Trump Admin doesn't account for them. It doesn't even consider them. It's as simple as "trade deficit by total volume". Unless you assume that, absent tariffs, trade would always be perfectly balanced (it won't be), then the difference is structural realities (such as certain climates growing things that can't be grown in the US).

They aren't reciprocal tariffs because the other countries don't have anything like comparable tariffs in place already.

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