Washington (Feb. 13, 2025) — President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social account that he would be announcing reciprocal tariffs on Thursday.
The tariffs contained within this expected executive order would increase the country’s tariffs to rates that other countries charge on imports, according to the Associated Press. Reciprocal tariffs signify that if a country imposes levies on imports to the U.S., the U.S. would reciprocate with those same levies on its own imports.
According to Forbes, the U.S. weighted average tariff rate would potentially be 4.8% if Trump goes with the country-level strategy, which Forbes describes as “the ‘simplest’ strategy which would have the U.S. impose the same average tariffs trading partners slap on U.S. goods.” This estimation comes from Deutsche Bank economists who published a note on their predictions on Monday.
This announcement continues the trend of Trump imposing tariffs on U.S. trading partners in his first weeks in office. These tariffs have the potential to lead to retaliation from other countries imposing taxes on their imports, opening up the possibility of a trade war.
The big question is: Will these tariffs cause inflation? Tariffs can often increase prices on the consumer end, and these reciprocal tariffs could result in higher inflation in the short term. According to Deutsche Bank, it’s likely consumers won’t absorb all of the costs of the tariffs, but even on a partial basis, they could see an impact.
BPN will continue to monitor tariff announcements and keep an eye on how it may impact the price of propane. The impact would depend on which products and countries are affected. If the tariffs target materials crucial to propane infrastructure or spark retaliatory actions from key propane trade partners, the industry could face higher costs, market instability and potential export challenges.
