The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, April 4, edition that President Donald Trump recently announced aggressive tariffs, claiming they will "make America rich again," a statement few economists support. The Globe's Jason Kirby writes that the new tariffs, which he labelled "Liberation Day," include 20 per cent on European imports, 24 per cent on Japan and 34 per cent on China, adding to existing duties. Economists are now calculating the effective tariff rate on U.S. imports. Fitch Ratings estimates the reciprocal tariffs will push the U.S. effective tariff rate to 18 per cent. In a note, CIBC economists Andrew Grantham and Ali Jaffery estimated a tariff rate of 20 per cent. Meanwhile Evercore ISI, a research firm, said America's tariff rate will hit 24 per cent on a weighted-average basis. All estimates point to a massive increase from the 2.5-per-cent tariff the U.S. applied on imports from the rest of the world last year, and suggest American trade policy will be more restrictive than at any time since the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which is widely blamed for extending and deepening the Great Depression by sparking a global trade war. Canada and Mexico escaped any additional tariffs this week.
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