U.S. President-elect Donald Trump looks on at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center on December 22, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Rebecca Noble | Getty Images
According to a Washington Post report, President-elect Donald Trump is considering a plan that would continue to impose tariffs on all countries but would limit the focus to a select range of goods and services.
The new approach to tariffs would likely not be as effective as Trump's previous ideas, but would still lead to major changes in global trade, the paper said, citing people familiar with Trump's thinking.
However, Trump denied the report in a post on Truth Social.
“The report in the Washington Post, which cites so-called anonymous sources that do not exist, incorrectly states that my tariff policy is being scaled back. This is wrong,” he wrote.
The report comes amid fears that the new president's insistence on imposing across-the-board tariffs of 10% or 20%, particularly on China and Mexico, would lead to a further rise in inflation.
During Trump's first term, tariffs on a wide range of imports did little to raise prices across the board and were even maintained when Joe Biden took office as president. But economists worry that conditions are different now and aggressive tariffs would have a bigger impact.
The Post report said it was still not clear which sectors would be affected by the plans, although initial discussions focused on various industrial metals, medical supplies and energy.
The US runs a $74 billion monthly trade deficit, which exploded during the Covid pandemic.
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