Originally Posted by Rob B.
Trump’s tariffs were pitched as “reciprocal,” matching what other countries charge the United States dollar for dollar, even taking into account non-tariff barriers like value-added taxes and other such measures. But the actual calculation Trump used is not reciprocal at all. Matching countries’ tariffs dollar for dollar is an incredibly difficult task, involving matching a complex array of products, each of which has a different charge for any variants. Instead, Trump used quite a simple calculation: the country’s trade deficit divided by its exports to the United States times 1/2. That’s it. For example, America’s trade deficit with China in 2024 was $295.4 billion, and the United States imported $439.9 billion worth of Chinese goods. That means China’s trade surplus with the United States was 67% of the value of its exports - a value Trump labeled as “tariff charged to USA.” It will be interesting to see how other countries react to this kind of calculation.

It was my impression that they were purely reciprocal, category per category. They were not.
Then the WH puts out fact sheets in which the tariffs were said to be averaged-out equal to opposing tariffs and indexed to things such as currency manipulation when it is weaponized for advantage.
There is also the explanation in quotes.

At the moment, I'm going to wait for more information.

Whatever the calculations were, the trade imbalances appear to be there and need addressing. It is a question how and how much.
Google Gemini will usually cite reasonably reliable looking sources regarding the existing trade numbers.

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