By Mucahithan Avcioglu
ISTANBUL (AA) - Author James Surowiecki, who previously wrote The Financial Page for The New Yorker said the tariffs President Donald Trump claimed countries impose on the US are "made up."
"It's also important to understand that the tariff rates that foreign countries are supposedly charging us are just made-up numbers," he wrote on X.
"South Korea, with which we have a trade agreement, is not charging a 50% tariff on U.S. exports. Nor is the EU charging a 39% tariff," he added.
Surowiecki examined the tariffs in detail before sharing a methodology that he said suits the tariffs, calling it "extraordinary nonsense."
"Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They (Trump administration) didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us.
"So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is," he noted.
Surowiecki blamed US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent for agreeing to the rates.
"How in God's name did Scott Bessent agree to sign off on this?" he said.
Trump revealed Wednesday his long-awaited reciprocal tariffs.
Tariffs ranging from 10% to 50% were imposed on products the US imports from many of its trading partners.
The EU received 20%, China 34%, Vietnam 46%, Taiwan 32%, Japan 24%, India 26%, South Korea 25%, Thailand 36%, Switzerland 31%, Indonesia 32%, Malaysia 24%, Cambodia 49%, South Africa 30%, Bangladesh 37% and Israel 17% in reciprocal tariffs.
Some countries, such as Türkiye, the UK, Brazil, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were each subjected to 10% baseline tariffs.