The administration of US President Donald Trump seeks to change the structure of the US economy by significantly increasing revenue from customs duties. This was stated by the senior adviser to the US leader on trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro.
“If President Trump succeeds as he wants, we will restructure the American economy so that it does not depend too much on income taxes and the Internal Revenue Service (the main tax collection agency in the US), and also relies on revenue from customs duties and the Foreign Exchange Revenue Service“, he said in a frank online interview with the American newspaper Politico.
“Tax revenues will play a very important role. And this will be part of a long-term transformation“, Navarro emphasized. He also noted that the Washington administration is ready to waive tariffs on products from those countries that invest significant funds in the US economy. As he specified, countries, according to Trump, "are not required to pay tariffs if they invest" in the US.
Navarro said that administration officials "estimated the damage to the US economy from the global trade deficit at 1 trillion USD". "If it is determined that there is serious damage, the president will decide what to do", he added. The adviser to the American leader said that the administration admits "the possibility of introducing additional global tariffs", but did not provide details.
Trump said earlier that he had decided to create a Foreign Revenue Service, which would collect duties, taxes and other revenues from international trade. The president assured that in this way, significant funds from foreign sources will begin to flow into the US budget.