Former Russian Finance Minister Outlines Trump's Economic Policy 4 hours ago
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Donald Trump, who won the US presidential election, will cut taxes and introduce import tariffs he promised, albeit in smaller scale, while he is unlikely to impose sanctions against "de-dollarizing" countries, former Russian Finance Minister and economist Mikhail Zadornov told Sputnik.
Tariff Policy
"Trump's tariff policy... What will happen in reality? He will certainly raise tariffs. This will be helped by the control of both houses of Congress by the Republican Party. But this will only be done in 2026. Not in the scale [as Trump promised], I think in a much smaller scale," Zadornov said.
The introduction of new tariffs will be the result of complex trade negotiations with both countries of North and Latin America, as well as with allies in Europe. This will lead to China, as before, trying to circumvent the restrictions by trading through Mexico, Vietnam and other Asian countries.
"Chinese goods will still enter the markets of Europe and the United States," Zadornov noted.
However, because of this, global trade will be further fragmented, and its growth rate will certainly decrease, the economist noted.
"For us, this means that Russia will have to look for its trade allies in this changing global landscape," he added.
Zadornov recalled that Trump promised to introduce 20% tariffs on all imports from Europe and other countries, raise tariffs on imports from China to 60% and completely deprive China of the most favored nation status in mutual trade.
"Let me remind you that the US trade deficit this year could be about $1 trillion. That is, for Trump, this is simply an additional source of compensation for the reduction of taxes within the United States," the former finance minister explained.
