In February 2025, President Donald Trump officially introduced a broad reciprocal tariff policy by signing a presidential memorandum aimed at reshaping the United States’ trade relationships with foreign countries. During a press conference in the Oval Office, Trump summarized the principle behind the policy with the statement: “They charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them.” This reflected the central idea of Trump’s “America First” economic strategy, which argued that the United States had been treated unfairly in international trade for many years. According to the Trump administration, many countries imposed higher tariffs, value-added taxes (VATs), and other non-tariff barriers on American goods while continuing to benefit from relatively open access to the U.S. market. Trump therefore proposed that the United States should respond with equivalent tariffs in order to create what he called a “level playing field” in global trade. As a result, reciprocal tariffs became one of the most important and controversial components of Trump’s second-term economic policy. Although Trump had already imposed tariffs during his first presidential term, particularly during the U.S.–China trade war in 2018, the reciprocal tariff system introduced in 2025 was much broader and more systematic. Earlier tariffs mainly targeted China, steel, and aluminum imports, whereas the new policy potentially affected many countries simultaneously, including China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Japan, India, and Vietnam. Trump also emphasized that the policy would target not only traditional tariffs but also non-tariff trade barriers such as VAT systems, subsidies, import regulations, and trade restrictions that disadvantaged American products. Furthermore, the administration warned that foreign countries would not be allowed to bypass tariffs by rerouting goods through third-party countries before exporting them to the United States. These measures demonstrated that the reciprocal tariff policy aimed not only to increase tariffs themselves but also to pressure trading partners into changing their trade practices and negotiating new agreements with the United States. Trump’s reciprocal tariff policy represented a major shift away from the free-trade principles that had dominated the global economy for decades. Supporters believed that the policy would strengthen American industries, protect manufacturing jobs, and restore fairness in international trade. Critics, however, argued that aggressive tariff measures could increase production costs, disrupt global supply chains, and intensify tensions between major economies. As reciprocal tariffs expanded during Trump’s second presidential term, they became one of the most significant and controversial economic policies influencing global trade relations in the modern era.