Wednesday is tariff ‘Liberation Day.’ Here’s what Trump says is coming

President Donald Trump says foreign countries have been “ripping us off for years” when it comes to international trade and is set to declare a broad raft of new tariffs Wednesday in a policy reset he bills “Liberation Day.”

In comments made in recent days, Trump has indicated that a narrower set of responses to trade imbalances that have been previously signaled by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett are no longer in play and the upcoming decree will apply globally.

Last week, both Bessent and Hassett said that the package of new tariffs to be unveiled on April 2 would be winnowed to the 10 or 15 countries that represent the biggest imbalances in their trade agreements with the U.S., a group Bessent labeled the “dirty 15.”

Fielding questions from reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump sounded a decidedly different tone on the upcoming tariff package indicating it would impact “essentially all” U.S. trading partners.

“You’d start with all countries,” Trump told reporters late Sunday, per CNBC. “So let’s see what happens. There are many countries.”

In a Monday post on his Truth Social account, Trump provided a list of companies he says have pledged to make sizable new investments in U.S.-based operations and said, even ahead of Wednesday’s tariff announcement, his trade policy stances were bringing new business to the country.

“There will never have been a transformation of a Country like the transformation that is happening, for all to see, in the United States of America,” Trump wrote. “Companies are pouring into our Country at levels never seen before, with Jobs (and Money!) to follow. It is a beautiful thing to watch!”

How is the market reacting?

Trump’s comments resonated throughout U.S. investment markets Monday which opened down sharply but rallied for the biggest intraday recovery in more than two years, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

That rally on the final day of March, however, didn’t erase what has been the worst quarter for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite since 2022.

On-again, off-again trade policy declarations have sown upheaval in the U.S. business community, with operators that rely on surety finding themselves in a realm of uncertainty when it comes to making future plans and investments.

How will new tariffs impact U.S. economy?

Trump and his staffers argue that any negative fiscal impacts from the new trade levies would be temporary and ultimately lead to a stronger economy. But many economists are predicting that most of the new charges on imported goods will be passed on to consumers and the overall outcomes will be higher inflation and a potentially broader slowing of the U.S. economy.

In a note issued to clients Sunday, U.S. investment giant Goldman Sachs updated its earlier economic outlook, including raising its inflation estimate, downgrading the GDP growth measure and increasing its predicted odds of a coming recession.

Goldman analysts told investors it is now expecting inflation to hit 3.5% in 2025, a 0.5% increase from its previous estimate and expects U.S. GDP growth at just 0.2% on an annualized basis in the first quarter and 1% for the full year, according to a report from CNBC.

And Goldman now anticipates a 35% chance of recession in the next 12 months, up from its previous 20% estimate.

“We continue to believe the risk from April 2 tariffs is greater than many market participants have previously assumed,” the note read.

While the new tariffs will target international import goods, some economists note price increases could spill over to the U.S. service sector.

“There is a chance tariffs on goods begin to filter through to the pricing of services,” Samuel Rines, a strategist at asset management firm WisdomTree, told the Associated Press. “Auto parts get more expensive, then auto repair gets more expensive, then auto insurance feels the pressure. While goods are the focus, tariffs could have a longer-term effect on inflation.”

Typically used address unfair trade practices and shore up domestic industries, history has shown tariffs can be practical and sometimes beneficial.

“There’s a reason these policy tools exist,” Claudia Sahm, chief economist at New Century Advisors, said in an interview with CNN in early March.

Other reasons for tariffs include national security concerns, bolstering key points in supply chains and countering monopolization of critical imports, Economic Policy Institute economists Adam Hersh and Josh Bivens have said, per CNN.

The tariffs tale — so far

Trump has variously announced and rescinded a number of new tariff policies in recent weeks, actions that led to widespread uncertainty for U.S. businesses and losses in U.S. investment markets.

Those actions have included:

• March 3 — Trump announced that a 30-day pause on 25% tariffs targeting goods from Canada and Mexico would end.
• Also on March 3, Trump ordered an additional round of 10% tariffs on goods from China, adding to the 10% levy the U.S. imposed the month before.
• March 5 — Trump circled back with a temporary carveout on his tariff declarations, announcing a new 30-day pause that applied just to automobile industry imports from Canada and Mexico.
• March 6 — The president followed up by signing a pair of executive orders for selective moratoriums on new tariffs for Mexican and Canadian goods, set to time out on April 2. The orders essentially revert trade rules back to the previous guidance under the 2018 U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement, a trade pact Trump signed in his first term.
• March 7 — Trump added yet another tariff twist, indicating he may issue new levies on certain Canadian products, including a 250% tariff on dairy, a rate he said matches a current Canadian tariff on U.S. dairy imports. “Canada has been ripping us off for years on tariffs for lumber and for dairy products,” he said. The president also said he was “strongly considering” imposing new sanctions on Russia, including trade tariffs, until a ceasefire agreement is reached with Ukraine.
• March 12 — Trump announced a new 25% tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum that he said was in retaliation to a 25% Canadian energy tariff on electricity exports to the U.S. Later that day, following Canada’s move to pull back on the new energy tariff, Trump delayed the steel and aluminum levy.
• March 24 — Trump announced new 25% tariffs on import goods from countries that purchase Venezuelan oil and gas in response to Venezuelan immigration issues.
• March 26 — Trump signed an executive order creating a new 25% tariff on “all cars that are not made in the United States.” The president said the move will generate revenues to offset the national debt and boost U.S. auto manufacturing.