Trump Administration to Confront Countries With New Tariff ‘Number’

The Trump administration plans to confront countries around the world with a reciprocal tariff “number” on April 2, a figure that will reflect what the White House considers the cost of foreign trade barriers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday.

Mr. Bessent said the administration would then carry out negotiations with those countries with the aim of lowering those barriers or putting the reciprocal tariff into place.

“What’s going to happen on April 2 — each country will receive a number that we believe that represents their tariffs,” Mr. Bessent said in an interview on Fox Business on Tuesday morning. “So, for some countries, it could be quite low. For some countries, it could be quite high.”

Mr. Bessent’s comments shed new light on a mysterious and sweeping trade action that President Trump announced last month. He and his advisers have said that his so-called reciprocal tariffs will aim to match the tariffs that other countries charge on American exports, while also taking into account other practices the United States deems unfair, like taxes or currency manipulation.

But it has not been clear how the Trump administration might go about determining the new tariff. Trade advisers have been debating whether the administration should raise tariff rates on specific items that face elevated levies abroad — like motorcycles or ethanol — or come up with an average tariff rate for the entire country and then impose that on top of any existing levies.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the administration had discussed the idea of separating trade partners into three tariff tiers.