NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump’s tariff proposals acted as a tax on US consumers, raised inflation, and had no benefit to the American economy, said former IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath on Wednesday.
Slamming Trump’s "Liberation Day" tariffs, Gopinath said the scorecard has been negative for the last six months.
Trump proclaimed “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he announced the most sweeping tariff hike. He declared a national emergency over the US trade deficit and invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to authorise sweeping tariffs on foreign imports.
He aimed to correct what he described as decades of unfair trade barriers that had hurt American producers.