Pass a Reciprocal Trade Act letting the President mirror foreign tariffs
What the document says“President Trump urged Congress in his 2019 State of the Union address to pass the United States Reciprocal Trade Act (USRTA).”
Under the proposed act the President could bring any trading partner applying higher non-reciprocal tariffs to the negotiating table and, if it refused to lower them to American levels, raise American tariffs to match. The essay records that its sponsor said the purpose was not to raise tariffs but to give the President a targeted tool to force other countries to lower theirs, and cites a poll finding 80 percent support.
What the document actually says“President Trump urged Congress in his 2019 State of the Union address to pass the United States Reciprocal Trade Act (USRTA).”
One bill would let the president match another country's tariffs. This essay wants it passed.
Some countries charge more on American goods than America charges on theirs. This bill would let the president match their rate. The idea is to make them lower theirs.
This chapter contains the opposing case. 'The Case for Free Trade', by Kent Lassman, argues the reverse: that tariffs have backfired, that trade policy is the wrong tool for industrial goals, and that the next Administration should ignore what it calls populist ideologues seeking protection. Neither essay is presented as the chapter's conclusion.
Regulating Imports With a Reciprocal Tariff To Rectify Trade Practices That Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trade Deficits
2025-04-02 · 90 FR 15041
Same subject, different instrument. The first essay asked Congress to pass the United States Reciprocal Trade Act, giving the President authority to mirror a partner's tariffs after negotiation. This order proceeds instead by declaring a national emergency under existing authority, without the statute the essay asked Congress to enact.
The chapter asked Congress to pass a trade law. That law would let the President match another country's tariffs after talks. No such law was passed. The order acts under an emergency power that already existed.
2 agency rules
- Indefinite Suspension of the De Minimis Exemption for Mail Shipments and New Postal Informal Entry ProcessHomeland Security Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection · June 24, 2026
- Indefinite Suspension of the De Minimis Exemption for Merchandise Arriving Through All Modes Other Than the International Postal NetworkHomeland Security Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection · June 24, 2026
Each of these names the order above in its own summary, preamble or filing. That is a fact about the document, not a finding that it carries out this proposal: it is one step further away than the order is, and what it does about the proposal is a reading nobody has made here.