Trump administration may slowly ramp up tariffs

The news: Members of President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration are considering slowly ramping up tariffs month by month to boost negotiating leverage without causing inflation to rise, per Bloomberg. One idea that’s been floated involves a schedule of graduated tariffs that increase about 2% to 5% a month.

Why it matters: The Bloomberg report is the latest in a series of acknowledgments that universal tariffs of 10% to 20%, along with other elements of the economic agenda that Trump discussed on the campaign trail, would cause prices to rise and slow economic growth.

• A little over a week ago, another report surfaced that Trump was reportedly scaling back his plans to implement across-the-board tariffs on all goods imported into the US.
• But a few days later a different report suggested he was considering taking the dramatic step of declaring a national economic emergency so he can implement universal tariffs on allies and adversaries.

Our take: Trump’s desire to reshape global trade through tariffs is clear, but the ambiguity surrounding these plans is creating an uncertain landscape that leaves retailers, manufacturers, and consumers struggling to navigate and plan effectively.

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