Three great unknown on the eve of the announcement of the President’s Day Liberation

Donald Trump says there are tariffs. This US president’s message was consistent.

But what are the tariffs and when? Import taxes came so thick and fast as it took office that it is difficult to track.

Trump has already collected duties on Chinese imports, steel, aluminum and some products from Canada and Mexico. This week, higher cars should come into force.

We are now waiting for Trump to submit details of his plan for a broader set of tariffs that his team has spent over the past few weeks for development.

The White House calls it the “Liberation Day”. So what can we learn on Wednesday?

In the White House, analysts swim different tariffs, although analysts swim different possible indicators.

Last year, as a result, Trump supported 10% on the home tariffs for all imports in the United States, sometimes believing that it could make up 20% 60% of imports from China.

Once in the post, he presented the idea of ​​”back” tariffs, believing that rates could change around the country.

“Very simple, that’s when they charge us, we take the fee,” he said in February, shortly before that He ordered the officials to develop such a plan.

The White House almost immediately complicated the picture, noting that their recommendations would reflect not only tariffs but also other politicians, which, in their opinion, undoubtedly relate to US business, such as value added tax (VAT).

This has led to a clash because businesses and political leaders are trying to understand how big a new tax could face their products; And as everything that will be announced on Wednesday will interact with other duties, such as the steel and aluminum, already introduced by Trump.

For example, officials in Europe are preparing for a double -digit tariff for their export. Trump has said earlier this year that he plans to cut off the goods from a 25% import tax tax.

The Trump administration did not confirm which countries would suffer, although it stopped the announcement on Wednesday as a wide one.

On Sunday, the president said the new tariffs could turn to “all countries”, suggesting that the tariff he supported in the campaign is possible.

In some countries, for example, in the UK, it is hoping that they can swim under the radar, although many still hope that they will eventually work.

But it’s still unclear To what extent the tariffs will be applied everywhere or more focused.

Last month, Finance Minister Scott Bavert said that efforts were focused on “dirty 15” – 15% of countries explaining the bulk of the US trade and imposing tariffs or other rules that put US companies in a disadvantage.

The US Trade Representative Office, when prepared for recommendations on the framework, identified the countries that were “especially interested”.

These were Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, European Union, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UK and Vietnam.

Trump himself reserved part of his most violent criticism for historical allies and major trading partners such as Canada and the EU.

“A friend was often much worse than the enemy,” he said last week.

Tariffs are import taxes. So, the big question: who will pay?

Technically, there is a simple answer: US firms that bring goods are companies that will face the bill, especially if the White House starts chargeing the tariffs “right away”, as the secretary -secretary Caroline Levitt suggested on Tuesday.

But the higher the tariffs, the more firms will look for ways to compensate for these costs, or changing suppliers, pushing business partners to share weights – or raising the prices for Americans.

Many companies have stated that they are already preparing for this step. But this is a risky game, because when companies are too highly raising the prices, buyers will just stay aloof.

The dynamics increased the risk of economic recession both in the US – and far beyond their borders, where many companies rely on US sales.

Trump says companies seeking to avoid tariffs can just make their business in the US, but this is not a direct or simple correction, given the big hiring costs and factories.

Enter the currency swings and retribution to other countries into the mixture, and the consequences of Trump’s application on the reset of global trading residues are probably hard to predict long after the announcement on Wednesday.