Trump Boasts Of New Deal That Triples Taxes On Americans Buying British Products

The agreement will result in $6 billion in new taxes that Americans will have to pay for goods from the United Kingdom.

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump boasted on Thursday of a new trade agreement that, on average, triples the taxes Americans will have to pay on British imports while signaling that higher tariffs will be the norm for agreements with other countries as well.

According to a chart used by Trump, the new trade deal with the United Kingdom will bring in $6 billion in “external revenue,” a term he and his administration dishonestly use to describe payments collected by U.S. Customs from American importers. The new 10% rate for nearly all goods, which was announced last month for countries all over the world, is three times higher than the 3.4% average rate Americans have paid for goods from Britain and Northern Ireland.

“It’s an anti-trade deal,” said Scott Lincicome, the director of economics at the Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies.

He and other economists said that Trump’s description of that 10% rate as the minimum tax level for all coming trade agreements effectively makes the United States a high-tariff country and will be a continuing drag on the economy.

“That is largely in line with my fears,” said Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama White House and now a professor at Harvard University. “Best case is emerge from Trump with a 12% average tariff rate on world. That is back to the 1940s and on par with Iran and Venezuela.”