With less than a day to spend before a new promised round of the tariffs of President Donald Trump on April 2, which has called “day of liberation”, the president has not yet revealed how radical these rates will be.
However, the sources have revealed to ABC News some of the options that the administration has been debating in recent weeks. They include a flat rate of 20% in all imports, which according to officials could raise more than $ 6 billion of income for the United States government.
It is also said that different tariff levels are in consideration so that each country coincides with the barriers that impose American products. The countries that attack agreements with the US will not be attacked with tariffs, sources told ABC News.
President Donald Trump talks about the press aboard Air Force One before arriving at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 28, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP through Getty Images
The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that countries have called Trump about the next rates, but did not provide details about which countries or how many have had conversations.
“I don’t have a specific number, but I can tell him that there have been enough countries that have called the president and have called their team in discussion about these rates,” Leavitt said
Administration officials have also publicly talked about imposing tariffs on approximately 15% of countries with the highest commercial imbalances with the United States.
The final details are not yet in stone, the sources emphasized. Leavitt said Tuesday that the president is currently working with his team “perfecting him to make sure that this is a perfect treatment for the American people and the US worker.”
Trump has sometimes minimized the scope of rates. Last week, he said that his reciprocal tariffs would be “very indulgent … in many cases, less than the rate they have been charging for decades” and that people would be “pleasantly surprised.”
The White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, speaks during an informative press session at the White House, April 1, 2025, in Washington, DC
EVAN VUCCI/AP
Whatever tariffs, the Trump administration believes that it will have a general positive effect on the economy of the United States, including the prevention that other countries “scam” to the United States, the Administration has also insisted that tariffs will boost national industries and jobs, convincing companies to manufacture in the US. UU. Instead of importing goods abroad.
Tariffs can be used as a negotiation tool for other countries to take energetic measures against illegal immigration and drug flow in the United States, according to Trump, a justification that has cited in its decision to impose tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China.
The president has also promoted tariffs as a way of generating income and helping to balance the budget.
The Stellantis Windsor assembly plant is shown on April 1, 2025 in Windsor, Canada. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has referred to tomorrow, on April 2, as “day of liberation”, when his administration will begin to implement new radical rates on imported goods to the United States of other countries.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
However, many experts point out that some of these objectives are contradictory and cannot be achieved simultaneously. They also warn that tariffs run the risk of bowing to the United States in a recession.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also told reporters on Tuesday that “they would establish retaliation measures” if Trump imposed “additional measures” against Canada.
Trump’s reciprocal rates will announce on Wednesday add up to 25% tariffs in imported vehicles that will enter into force on Thursday. Last month, Trump announced 25% tariffs on aluminum and steel imports.
Max Zahn of ABC News contributed to this report.
