The stated goal of the White House is to have zero trade balance with all trading partners.
Reciprocal tariffs are calculated as the tariff rate necessary to balance bilateral trade deficits between the U.S. and each of our trading partners
And this is the dumb formula they've used to calculate their tariffs, which doesn't take into account services, just goods, for reasons.
Here’s what the White House and its crack team of trade investigators seems to have done: Take the US’s goods trade deficit with any particular country, and divide it by the total amount of goods imported from that country. Cut that percentage in half, and there’s the US’s “reciprocal” tariff rate.
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A few takeaways, but one is that no news outlet should call these "reciprocal tariffs." The scare quote version above is ok.