The Economist.

My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day.

On Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden

and announced a generational shift in U.S. trade policy.

April 2nd, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn

and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.

Trump blames America's addiction to imports for the hollowing out of the country's industrial heartlands.

In short, chronic trade deficits are no longer merely an economic problem.

They're a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life.

His solution? Immense tariffs illustrated on a large cardboard chart.

I'd like to see the chart if you have it. Could you bring it up Howard?

In the left-hand column is a list of countries.

Next to each one is a percentage figure, which is the tariff to Trump administration says the country charges the U.S., though without any evidence.

Next to that is another figure, the new tariff that America will impose on goods

that country exports to the U.S.

China, first row, China, 67%, that's tariffs charged to the USA, including currency manipulation

and trade barriers. So we're going to be charging a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34%.

In other words, they charge us, we charge them.

We charge them less.

So how can anybody be upset?

And it's not just America's adversaries.

You know, you think of European Union very friendly.

...