Last week, a trade deal was announced between the United States and Vietnam.

Under the terms of the deal, as reported by Reason Magazine’s Eric Boehm, “American exports to Vietnam will face no tariffs while Vietnamese goods imported into the United States will face tariffs of between 20% and 40%.”

As part of President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” efforts, Vietnamese businesses importing American goods will not have to pay taxes to import these goods.

On the other hand, American businesses importing Vietnamese goods will have to pay taxes of 20% to 40%. If by “liberation,” Trump meant “taxation” this makes total sense. The only thing Trump is liberating in this deal is Americans from their money as they face higher prices.

“Vietnam helps Americans by selling them shoes (among other products) at a lower cost than if they were produced in the US,” explains Colin Grabow at the Cato Institute. “As of 2021, over one-quarter of imported footwear came from the Southeast Asian country at an average tariff rate of 13.6%. Under Trump’s new trade deal, those same shoes will now have to pay a tariff of 20% unless shoe production is shifted to the United States (unlikely) or another country that faces lower tariffs (we’ll see).”

If Trump really wanted to make a deal that would benefit Americans still hurting from the brutal inflation of the last five years, he would have negotiated a deal completely eliminating tariffs between the United States and Vietnam.

Instead, he has negotiated a deal in which Americans will have to cough up more to the government. It’s just another tax on Americans.

The deal with Vietnam gives us something to expect from Trump’s announcement Monday he will impose a 25% tax on imports from South Korea and Japan beginning Aug. 1, unless a deal is reached.

“Please understand this 25% number is far less than what is needed to eliminate the Trade Deficit disparity we have with your Country,” he wrote.

This statement implies there is something necessarily wrong with a trade deficit and that taxing Americans more will somehow correct whatever problems the president seems to think exists.

As Reason’s Boehm points out, Trump’s threat of a 25% tax on South Korea is especially notable considering he negotiated a trade deal with South Korea in 2018 and called the deal “fair and reciprocal” at the time.

This of course isn’t the first time he contradicted himself on trade deals he negotiated. His tariff threats against Mexico and Canada for instance come despite the fact he too renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement in his first term.

With these moves, Trump has worked relentlessly to undermine free trade and trust that America will honor its deals. While some wrongly believe that higher taxes on imports somehow make Americans better off, the reality is that Trump is hurting Americans for no reason other than that he has confused ideas about trade.

He also clearly likes the exercise of unilateral power. If Congress had any integrity it would block these tariffs and curtail any president’s ability to do what Trump is doing on trade. But it doesn’t, so Americans will continue to pay the cost for these decisions.

— From Tribune News Service