Donald Trump’s Fart Act explained

Leaked tariff bill draft reportedly
suggests that US abandons WTO rules

In Depth

The Bill “would be a dramatic shift in trade policy with
wide-reaching impacts”, adds the newspaper.

It would give Trump unilateral power to ignore the two most
basic principles of the WTO: those of the “Most Favoured Nation”
and “bound tariff rates”. The former means that countries
can’t set different tariff rates for different countries
outside of free trade agreements, while the latter are the ceilings
that each WTO country has already agreed to in previous
negotiations.

What’s with the name?

“Fabulously, the draft bill is termed the US Fair And Reciprocal
Tariff act, which as acronyms go would take some beating,” says
Politico’s Jack Blanchard.

Predictably, the name was greeted with glee on Twitter.

Will the Act be passed?

“It is no secret that Potus has had frustrations with the unfair
imbalance of tariffs that put the US at a disadvantage,” White
House spokesperson Lindsay Walters told Axios.

“He has asked his team to develop ideas to remedy this situation
and create incentives for countries to lower their tariffs. The
current system gives the US no leverage and other countries no
incentive.”

However, the website concludes that there is zero chance of
Congress allowing Trump to go ahead with his plan.

“The good news is Congress would never give this authority to
the president,” a source told the website, describing the Bill
as “insane”.

Another said: “The Trump administration should be more worried
about not having their current authority restricted rather than
expanding authority as this Bill would do.”