Presidential Document2025-02872
Reciprocal Trade and Tariffs
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
February 19, 2025
Signed
February 13, 2025
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 32 (Wednesday, February 19, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 32 (Wednesday, February 19, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 9837-9839]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-02872]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 32 / Wednesday, February 19, 2025 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 9837]]
Memorandum of February 13, 2025
Reciprocal Trade and Tariffs
Memorandum for the Secretary of the Treasury[,] the
Secretary of Commerce[,] the Secretary of Homeland
Security[,] the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget[,] the United States Trade Representative[,]
the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy[,
and] the Senior Counselor to the President for Trade
and Manufacturing
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Background. The United States has one of the
most open economies and has among the lowest average
weighted tariff rates in the world. The United States
imposes fewer barriers to imports than other major
world economies, including those with similar political
and economic systems. For many years, the United States
has been treated unfairly by trading partners, both
friend and foe. This lack of reciprocity is one source
of our country's large and persistent annual trade
deficit in goods--closed markets abroad reduce United
States exports and open markets at home result in
significant imports.
Our workers and industries bear the brunt of unfair
practices and limited access to foreign markets. As
noted in the Presidential Memorandum of January 20,
2025 (America First Trade Policy Memorandum), this
situation is untenable. The trade deficit of the United
States threatens our economic and national security,
has hollowed out our industrial base, has reduced our
overall national competitiveness, and has made our
Nation dependent on other countries to meet our key
security needs. By making trade more reciprocal and
balanced, we can reduce the trade deficit; grow the
United States economy; and improve our trade
relationships with trading partners to the benefit of
American workers, manufacturers, farmers, ranchers,
entrepreneurs, and businesses.
Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States
to reduce our large and persistent annual trade deficit
in goods and to address other unfair and unbalanced
aspects of our trade with foreign trading partners. In
pursuit of this policy, I will introduce the ``Fair and
Reciprocal Plan''(Plan). Under the Plan, my
Administration will work strenuously to counter non-
reciprocal trading arrangements with trading partners
by determining the equivalent of a reciprocal tariff
with respect to each foreign trading partner. This
approach will be of comprehensive scope, examining non-
reciprocal trade relationships with all United States
trading partners, including any:
(a) tariffs imposed on United States products;
(b) unfair, discriminatory, or extraterritorial
taxes imposed by our trading partners on United States
businesses, workers, and consumers, including a value-
added tax;
(c) costs to United States businesses, workers, and
consumers arising from nontariff barriers or measures
and unfair or harmful acts, policies, or practices,
including subsidies, and burdensome regulatory
requirements on United States businesses operating in
other countries;
(d) policies and practices that cause exchange
rates to deviate from their market value, to the
detriment of Americans; wage suppression; and other
[[Page 9838]]
mercantilist policies that make United States
businesses and workers less competitive; and
(e) any other practice that, in the judgment of the
United States Trade Representative, in consultation
with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of
Commerce, and the Senior Counselor to the President for
Trade and Manufacturing, imposes any unfair limitation
on market access or any structural impediment to fair
competition with the market economy of the United
States.
The Plan shall ensure comprehensive fairness and
balance across the international trading system by
factoring in losses as a result of measures that
disadvantage the United States as applied, regardless
of what they are called or whether they are written or
unwritten.
Sec. 3. Taking Action. (a) After the submission of the
specified agency reports due under the America First
Trade Policy Memorandum, the Secretary of Commerce and
the United States Trade Representative, in consultation
with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of
Homeland Security, the Assistant to the President for
Economic Policy, the Senior Counselor to the President
for Trade and Manufacturing, and the heads of such
other executive departments and agencies as the
Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade
Representative deem relevant, shall initiate, pursuant
to their respective legal authorities, all necessary
actions to investigate the harm to the United States
from any non-reciprocal trade arrangements adopted by
any trading partners. Upon completion of such necessary
actions, they shall submit to me a report detailing
proposed remedies in pursuit of reciprocal trade
relations with each trading partner.
(b) Within 180 days of the date of this memorandum,
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
shall assess all fiscal impacts on the Federal
Government and the impacts of any information
collection requests on the public, and shall deliver an
assessment in writing to the President.
Sec. 4. Definitions. For the purposes of this
memorandum:
(a) ``Value-added tax'' means a type of consumption
tax that is levied on the incremental increase in value
of a good or service at each stage of the supply chain.
(b) ``Nontariff barrier'' or ``measure'' means any
government-imposed measure or policy or nonmonetary
barrier that restricts, prevents, or impedes
international trade in goods, including import
policies, sanitary and phytosanitary measures,
technical barriers to trade, government procurement,
export subsidies, lack of intellectual property
protection, digital trade barriers, and government-
tolerated anticompetitive conduct of state-owned or
private firms.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this
memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise
affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent
with applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does
not, create any right or benefit, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments,
agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
[[Page 9839]]
(d) The United States Trade Representative is
authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in
the Federal Register.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, February 13, 2025
[FR Doc. 2025-02872
Filed 2-18-25; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3290-F7-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on February 19, 2025.
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