Homepage
PR Newswire
For those of us who remember our maths, this calculation doesn't pass the smell test as it doesn't account for population size and spending power - which probably explains why those outlier tariffs are reserved for mainly small and/or poor countries.
How were Donald Trump's tariffs calculated?
But if you unpick the formula above it boils down to simple maths: take the trade deficit for the US in goods with a particular country, divide that by the total goods imports from that country and then divide that number by two.
For example, the US buys more goods from China than it sells to them - there is a goods deficit of $295bn. The total amount of goods it buys from China is $440bn. Dividing 295 by 440 gets you to 67% and you divide that by two and round up. Therefore the tariff imposed on China is 34%.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93gq72n7y1o
How were Donald Trump's tariffs calculated?
But if you unpick the formula above it boils down to simple maths: take the trade deficit for the US in goods with a particular country, divide that by the total goods imports from that country and then divide that number by two.
For example, the US buys more goods from China than it sells to them - there is a goods deficit of $295bn. The total amount of goods it buys from China is $440bn. Dividing 295 by 440 gets you to 67% and you divide that by two and round up. Therefore the tariff imposed on China is 34%.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93gq72n7y1o