Trump’s Liberation Day: times, hours and what to expect on April 2 “The cost of his approach will be felt by everybody”

The world is awaiting what Donald Trump has touted as “Liberation Day in America!!!” The 47th US president plans to announce on Wednesday 2 April an array of new tariffs on imports to get “money, and respect, back” from nations, “friend and foe” that have “ripped off and abused” the United States he says.

So far, Trump’s flip-flopping on tariff policy during the two first months of his second stint in the White House has roiled markets. While the details of what he will outline for “the big one” are vague, Michael Froman, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, says that “the cost… will be felt by everybody.”

What time Trump will announce tariffs on Liberation Day?

President Donald Trump is set to publicly announce details of the “Liberation Day” plan in an appearance at 4 p.m. ET. With this move, he intends to reshape economic agreements with U.S. trading partners over everything from car parts to fish.

Trump’s Liberation Day could shackle Americans with higher prices

The common impression among economists is that additional tariffs on imports into the US will result in higher prices and lower wages for American consumers. This is because they are a tax on goods entering the US, which are paid by the company bringing them into the country. In turn, the importer generally passes that added cost onto the consumer.

Furthermore, it is fully expected that nations Trump places tariffs on will retaliate with tariffs on American goods as has already happened with the tariffs Trump previously imposed.

“Look, you can’t overrule the laws of economics with an executive order any more than you can overrule the laws of gravity,” Froman told CNN’s Faree Zakaria. “If you raise prices on something, if you impose a tax, which is what a tariff is on a product, it’s going to be more expensive and people will buy less of it.”

“And when you combine that lesser demand with what we’re seeing and the decline of consumer investor confidence, you could well see a slowing of the economy more generally and more expensive products for consumers,” he added.

Why does Trump want to impose tariffs on all nations?

The exact motives behind why Trump wants to put higher tariffs on foreign goods is unclear. Some have said that he is doing it for leverage to negotiate. For his part, Trump has given various reasons behind his drive to impose tariffs like getting Mexico and Canada to do more to stop illegal immigrants and drugs coming over the border.

More recently Trump said that with additional tariffs his administration is “going to charge countries for doing business in our country and taking our jobs, taking our wealth, taking a lot of things that they’ve been taking over the years.” He claims that our friendly trading partners have generally been “much worse than foe.”

“The cost of his approach will be felt by everybody”

Trump also wants companies to return manufacturing and supply chains to the United States. However, these are “very expensive decisions that take years and years,” explained Forman, who was the former US trade Representative under President Barack Obama.

He says that currently because of Trump’s on again, off again style with tariffs, it is creating uncertainty to which companies are saying: “We’re just going to wait and see, and see how this all pans out.” One thing that he is interested in seeing is how the situation develops politically over the next few years.

“Under globalization the benefits of globalization were widely spread, cheaper consumer products for Americans, and sort of invisible. But the cost of globalization were acutely felt by those industries that felt that competition like steel,” he reflected.

“Here, the president is flipping this on its head. So, the cost of his approach will be felt by everybody and the benefits may be felt by only a small number of workers in a small number of sectors,” he continued. “It takes years for companies to reestablish supply chains and produce more in the United States if they’re going to do so.”

“This administration has said that consumer welfare is not necessarily their top priority,” Forman pointed out. “I think the Secretary of Treasury said ‘cheap consumer products is not the American dream.‘”

“That’s a legitimate point to have, but the question is, how much are the American people willing to pay in terms of higher prices for everything that they buy?” he wondered. “Auto could be two to $15,000 more per car in order to try and encourage this kind of production in the United States. And will it work?”

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