USTR says new tariffs won't move the economy. They cover 99.4% of imports

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Monday that President Trump's new tariffs on 60 trading partners will likely have no economic impact, Reuters reported on July 27. The duties, imposed under Section 301 over what the administration calls lax enforcement of forced labour bans, carry rates of 10% or 12.5%.

"Well, I don't think it has an impact at all," Greer told Fox News Channel's "Special Report with Bret Baier," when asked whether the tariffs would affect the Federal Reserve's policy decision this week. "Now we have a set of tariffs, it's on a smaller set, it's not the whole world. A lot of the rates are pretty similar, so it should not have any economic impact that's different than what we've been experiencing."

The framing rests on comparison: the new duties hit a smaller group than the now-expired universal 10% temporary tariff. USTR has nonetheless said the forced-labour duties would still cover 99.4% of U.S. imports. Greer added that the agency is continuing a separate broad Section 301 investigation into excess industrial capacity across 16 trading partners, including China, Vietnam, Mexico and the European Union.

The read

Two numbers sit awkwardly together: a "smaller set" of countries and 99.4% of imports covered. Both can be true: narrow country lists can still capture nearly all trade volume, but they point in opposite directions rhetorically, and that gap is where the market's uncertainty lives.

The Fed meets this week, which is the more consequential calendar item. A trade official saying tariffs will not move monetary policy is a claim about the Fed's reaction function, not a fact about it.

Where a 99.4%-of-imports duty actually lands is in the names carrying import cost: China-exposed stocks, consumer and industrial hubs all sit on the wrong side of it. All trackers · confluence board.