By Janet H. Cho
While the world awaits President Donald Trump's decision whether to impose tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico by a full 25%, Trump took to his social media platform to tease tariffs for agricultural imports a month from now.
Trump said American farmers should prepare to start making more agricultural products to be sold within the U.S.
The tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico are due to kick in on Tuesday, and while the two countries have been negotiating on lowering or eliminating them, it wasn't clear whether those efforts would be successful.
Trump also wants to increase his tariffs on Chinese imports by another 10%.
Investors and market watchers are waiting for Trump to confirm the tariff plans, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 300 points on Monday afternoon.
Instead, Trump posted on his social media a vague reference to looming levies on agricultural products.
His full message posted just around lunch time said: "To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!"
The White House press office told Barron's in an email that the president was referencing "the reciprocal tariffs that he previously promised will come on April 2nd."
When Trump first proposed these "reciprocal tariffs" in a memo last month, he said that the Commerce Department and U.S. Trade Representative would outline steps on how to adjust U.S. tariff rates to match the duties and economic barriers other nations have levied on U.S. goods, saying the goal was to ensure fairness and balance across the trading system by factoring in measures that disadvantage the U.S., "regardless of what they are called and whether they are written or unwritten."
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This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 03, 2025 15:03 ET (20:03 GMT)
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