Rogé Karma: “Most obviously, the tariffs don’t appear to be based on actual trade barriers, which undermines their entire justification. Contrary to White House messaging, the formula for determining the new rates turns out to have been based simply on the dollar value of goods the U.S. imports from a given country relative to how much it exports. The administration took the difference between the two numbers, divided it by each country’s total exports, then divided that total in half, and slapped an import tax on countries at that rate. The theoretically reciprocal tariffs are not, in fact, reciprocal.”

“The result is that there is no clear or obvious path that countries could take to get those tariffs removed even if they wanted to. Countries can remove all of their trade restrictions and still run a trade surplus. South Korea, Mexico, and Canada, for example, export more to us than they import from us despite imposing virtually no trade barriers.”

“Donald Trump’s decision to boost tariffs on almost every country will deal a blow to China’s economy. But it’s also handing Xi Jinping a rare opening to deepen relationships across the board, including with key US allies in Asia and beyond,” Bloomberg reports.

“Chinese officials moved quickly on Thursday to align with other nations after Trump unveiled America’s steepest tariffs in a century.”

Jim Geraghty: “There are two main takeaways from yesterday’s so-called ‘Liberation Day’ announcements.”

“The new tariffs are economically illiterate, self-destructive, top-to-bottom nonsense, imposed with no sense of rhyme or reason, assembled by White House staffers who do not know which territories have serious trade relationships with the U.S. and which ones are inhabited entirely by penguins.”

“Also, the White House continues to avoid almost any decision that could possibly antagonize Vladimir Putin, while inflicting as much pain as possible on longtime allies and vulnerable friends like Israel and Taiwan.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) questioned President Trump’s decision to not impose tariffs on Russia, noting that while both China and Iran are part of the tariffs plan, Russia does not appear on Trump’s list.

“The European Union, taken as a whole, is America’s biggest trading partner. That makes President Trump’s fresh tariffs especially painful for the 27-nation bloc — but also gives it a uniquely large amount of economic weight to throw around in response,” the New York Times reports.

“In the hours after Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement on Wednesday, European leaders began to make clear that they plan to do so.”

“Among the options: to impose trade barriers on U.S. services firms, in particular giant technology companies like Google who do a huge amount of E.U. business. And policymakers are already finalizing lists of jacked-up tariffs that could go into effect as soon as mid-April.”