Trump admin accuses Israel of stealing US intellectual property, slaps on 17% tariff

Despite Israel dropping all remaining tariffs on US goods, Trump administration imposes across the board 17% tariffs on all Israeli goods, accusing Israel of “stealing a lot of intellectual property.”

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on all foreign countries Wednesday, including American allies and major trade partners.

In a ceremony at the Rose Garden, the president signed executive orders closing tariff loopholes and imposing across-the-board import taxes on all foreign countries.

“Today, President Donald J. Trump declared that foreign trade and economic practices have created a national emergency, and his order imposes responsive tariffs to strengthen the international economic position of the United States and protect American workers,” the White House said.

Trump castigated the trade imbalance of the past half century, claiming that the U.S. had been “looted pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike.”

The president called his new tariffs a “declaration of economic independence,” while foreign leaders threatened to impose reciprocal import taxes on American goods.

The orders were issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) and include a baseline 10% tariff on all countries.

However, 60 countries were penalized with higher tariffs, the White House said, targeting the “worst offenders.”

A 34% across-the-board tariff will be levied on Chinese goods. American allies, including the European Union and Japan, are also facing elevated tariff rates, with a 20% tariff imposed on goods from the EU and a 24% tariff on Japanese imports.

Britain received the lowest possible tariff of 10%, as did Iran, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia.

Israel was slapped with a sweeping 17% tariff, despite a last-minute decision by the Israeli government to drop all remaining tariffs on American goods.

“Tariffs on all imports from the United States will be canceled,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Tuesday.

Ahead of Trump’s address at the signing ceremony, an administration official explained to reporters why the White House was imposing elevated tariffs on Israel, accusing the Jewish state of intellectual property violations. “Israel steals a lot of intellectual property from, for example, the pharmaceutical manufacturers in this country,” the official said.

The White House dubbed the new import taxes “reciprocal tariffs” and released a list of foreign tariffs on American goods.

In most cases, tariffs applied by the U.S. in excess of the 10% baseline were calculated based on the import tax rate on American goods into the country in question, with a 50% “discount” applied.

Thus India, with a 52% tax rate on American imports, will now face a 26% tariff for its exports to the U.S.

Russia, Cuba, North Korea, and Belarus, which were not included on the list, are under American sanctions, which Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said would “preclude any meaningful trade,” Axios reported.

Iran, however, was listed, despite being under a sanctions regime.