HKS Authors

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Abstract

President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs went into effect August 1 at 15 percent or higher for many US trading partners. But the method used to calculate these rates ignores how global value chains work, greatly penalizing countries that use more intermediate inputs from other countries in their exported products.

Citation

Lawrence, Robert Z. "Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs heavily penalize countries that use more imported inputs." Peterson Institute for International Economics (September 9, 2025).