Trump says he plans reciprocal tariffs, will affect ‘everyone’

President Donald Trump said he plans to unveil reciprocal tariffs next week in a major escalation of his trade war with US economic partners.

Trump made the announcement during a meeting with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday and said the action would affect “everyone,” without specifying exactly what measures he plans to take.

“I’ll be announcing that next week — on reciprocal trade — so that we’re treated evenly with other countries. We don’t want any more or any less,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that he planned to hold a press conference on the matter. He said he planned to hold a meeting on the issue Monday or Tuesday.

At a White House press conference later on Friday Trump suggested that the reciprocal tariffs could come in lieu of the 10-20 percent universal import duty plan at the center of his economic message during the campaign. He said he was inclined to do “mostly” reciprocal tariffs over global import duties.