Washington, D.C. — Today, as the Trump administration announced a 90-day pause in implementation of its “Reciprocal Tariffs,” the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“Absent transparency about what is being demanded, we could end up with the worst of all outcomes — a bunch of bad special interest deals, all of the economic damage caused by tariff uncertainty and no trade rebalancing, US manufacturing capacity or goods jobs,” said Lori Wallach, Director of the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project. “The Trump administration could be striking deals with dozens of countries, but absent transparency, the public will not know whether their interests or Trump’s billionaire cabinet and friends on Wall Street or his family are being served. Deals must focus on addressing the mercantilist practices that some countries employ, which fuel the extreme global trade imbalances that have deindustrialized the United States and today deny the benefits of trade to numerous countries worldwide. The Trump administration must not use these talks to bully countries into gutting their online privacy and Big Tech anti-monopoly policies or undermining their food safety, health or environmental laws.”

“The chaos of these whipsaw tariffs flip flops is already causing economic chaos and losses, undermining confidence in America and our markets,” Wallach added. “Cutting deals in secret only adds to that uncertainty and risks corruption, which won’t just hurt Trump’s stated goal of investment in US manufacturing but the economy as a whole.”

Learn more about Rethink Trade here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.