Vice President JD Vance defended the Trump administration’s new tariffs on foreign nations, saying the U.S. needed a “big change” in trade policy because the status quo “globalist pathway” wasn’t working.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a baseline 10 percent levy on all imports entering the U.S. and higher tariffs on countries that tariff American goods at a higher rate. Trump rolled out the new tariffs on Wednesday, billing April 2 as “Liberation Day.” The president argues they will boost domestic manufacturing and discourage other countries from engaging in unfair trading practices.
Vance offered a similar defense of tariffs in a Fox & Friends interview that aired Thursday morning.
"This is a big change,” Vance said, noting he won’t “shy away” from that characterization, “but we needed a big change.”
“We cannot keep going down the Joe Biden globalist pathway, where we have $2 trillion of peacetime debt and deficits,” he added. “We have manufacturing disappearing. That is not working for Americans. We've got to take this country in a different direction."
Vance pointed to Trump’s first term, saying tariffs at the time helped the American economy and enabled the “beginning of a manufacturing renaissance” before the Biden administration ultimately reversed Trump’s trade policies.
Asian markets faltered overnight on the announcement and the Dow plummeted more than 1,200 points on opening Thursday morning. Recession fears mounted as economists predict the tariffs will lead to a significant contraction coupled with rising inflation.
The vice president acknowledged the economic strain the tariffs will cause, but assured viewers that they will benefit from tariffs in the long run.
"We know people are struggling,” he said. “We're fighting as quickly as we can to fix what was left to us, but it's not going to happen immediately."
"We really do believe that if we pursue the right deregulation, we pursue those energy cost-reducing policies, yes, people are going to see it in their pocketbook. They're also going to benefit from the fact that foreign countries can't take advantage of us anymore. That means their jobs are going to be more secure."
The baseline 10 percent tariff applies to the United Kingdom, Australia, Turkey, El Salvador, and Saudi Arabia, among others. It doesn’t apply to Canada and Mexico, however, since the U.S. has already provided exemptions and delays for the neighboring allies.
The key trading partners that are subject to higher rates include the European Union at 20 percent, Vietnam at 46 percent, Japan at 24 percent, Aouth Africa at 30 percent, and Taiwan at 32 percent. Notably, Israel was hit with a 17 percent tariff, despite canceling its import duties on American products.
While the White House claims those rates represent 50 percent of the corresponding country’s tariff rate on the U.S., economists determined after the announcement that the rates were actually calculated by dividing the corresponding country’s trade deficit with the U.S. by the value of its exports to the U.S., so the tariffs are not truly reciprocal.
The baseline 10 percent tariff will take effect on April 5, and the higher rates will go into effect on April 9. Additionally, a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made cars that Trump announced last week already took effect on Thursday.
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