By Gavin Bade, Josh Dawsey and Meridith McGraw
WASHINGTON—The White House is narrowing its approach to tariffs set to take effect on April 2, likely omitting a set of industry-specific tariffs while applying reciprocal levies on a targeted set of nations that account for the bulk of foreign trade with the U.S.
President Trump has declared his April 2 deadline to be “Liberation Day” for the U.S., when he will put in place so-called reciprocal tariffs that seek to equalize U.S. tariffs with the duties charged by trading partners, as well as tariffs on sectors like automobiles, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors he repeatedly said would be enacted on that day.
Those sector-specific tariffs, however, are now not likely to be announced on April 2, said an administration official, who said the White House is still planning to unveil the reciprocal tariff action on that day, though planning remains fluid. The shift was earlier reported by Bloomberg.
The fate of the sectoral tariffs, as well as tariffs on Canada and Mexico that Trump said were justified by fentanyl trafficking, remains uncertain. The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment on if or when any of those tariffs are still planned to go into effect.
The focus of the reciprocal action now looks to be more targeted than originally thought, according to people with knowledge of the planning, though it will still hit countries that account for most of the U.S.’s imports.
The administration is now focusing on applying tariffs to about 15% of nations with persistent trade imbalances with the U.S.—a so-called “dirty 15,” as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put it last week. Those nations, which Bessent said account for most of the U.S.’s foreign trade, will be especially hard-hit with higher tariffs, said people with knowledge of the matter, though other nations could be given more modest tariffs as well.
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