Cutting Tariffs on Farm Equipment Is Another Admission That Trump's Trade Policies Are Increasing Prices |
Free Trade
Cutting Tariffs on Farm Equipment Is Another Admission That Trump's Trade Policies Are Increasing Prices
Even as the White House backs away from its foolish tariff plans, the Trump administration keeps revealing why it should never have had these powers in the first place.
Eric Boehm | 6.2.2026 4:20 PM
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President Donald Trump and some of his top advisers have routinely insisted that the administration's new, higher tariffs would not burden American consumers because foreign governments or corporations would pay for those tax increases.
But with inflation rising and consumers (and voters) increasingly grumpy about the cost of living, the White House has turned to a telling strategy: cutting tariffs to make some products less expensive.
On Monday, the White House issued a presidential proclamation reducing tariffs on a wide range of agricultural and industrial equipment, including tractors, forklifts, and air conditioning equipment. Those imports will now be subject to a tariff of 15 percent rather than 25 percent, Trump announced.
The same announcement also rolls back one of the more insane aspects of Trump's tariff regime: a rule implemented last year that would apply tariffs on raw steel and aluminum to imported products made from steel or aluminum. Under the new terms Trump announced on Monday, some "derivative" steel, aluminum, and copper products will be subject to a tariff of 10 percent instead of........