The Trump administration's "reciprocal tariff" policy, unveiled on April 2 under the banner of ensuring fair trade for the United States, has sparked strong opposition from world economies and triggered a wave of countermeasures. These recent developments have placed the U.S. economy under recessionary pressures unseen in recent decades.

Tariffs have long been an inherent feature of international trade, serving as a legitimate policy tool across historical and modern societies. They are a form of agreement reached between trading nations, with the tariff rate reflecting negotiated fairness.

Variations in national resource endowments, technological advancement, labor costs and other factors lead to divergent valuations of the same goods. Consequently, different tariff rates on similar commodities are a normal mechanism to approximate fairness in global trade.

Beyond balancing trade equity, tariffs also play a part in increasing government revenues, protecting nascent industries, rectifying unfair trade practices and safeguarding domestic technological security. Collectively, these functions uphold the principle of tariff fairness—a cornerstone of sustainable international commerce.

No single country dictates tariffs—they are negotiated. The World Trade Organization (WTO), its predecessor being the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, exists to uphold this system. When the U.S. imposed "reciprocal tariffs," it invited rightful WTO complaints from China and other countries. 

When China joined the WTO in 2001, its tariff commitments, including those with the U.S., were established through negotiations. As agreed with other WTO members, China pledged to gradually reduce its overall tariff level following accession. By 2010, China had lowered it from 15.3 percent to 9.8 percent, honoring its WTO commitments. Since then, China has implemented additional voluntary tariff reductions. By 2021, the 20th anniversary of its WTO membership, China's overall tariff level had fallen further to 7.4 percent, lower than all other developing members and approaching levels typical of developed WTO economies.

Bilaterally negotiated China-U.S. tariffs long maintained reasonable balance. However, the Trump administration's recent unilateral imposition of tariffs without negotiations violated free trade principles and disrupted this balance—a regressive approach incompatible with modern trade norms.

Claims that these tariffs protect U.S. interests or reduce trade deficits ring hollow coming from the world's preeminent trading power, serving only as unconvincing justifications for protectionism. BR