CNBC: These are the ‘dirty 15’ countries that could be more affected by Trump’s duties

US President Donald Trump is due to put in place on Wednesday, April 2, the infamous reciprocal duties. And while the important details for them are covered by a veil of mystery as no one knows exactly what the US president has designed to “hit” them.

Indeed, Trump has called this day as a “day of liberation”. But his plan has caused great uncertainty as many of the key elements, such as exactly what countries will be affected, the way of calculating the duties for each country and which will be most affected, remain unclear.

Finance Minister Scott Bessed, in an interview with Fox Business on March 18, described them as ‘Dirty 15’ countrieswhich represent much of the US imports. It was referring to those that have surpluses in their trade balance with the US and which accounts for about 15% of the total. But again, Bessed did not name what he meant.

Kevin Hasset, director of Trump’s National Economic Council, said in a later interview with CNBC that Government is considering 10 to 15 countries responsible for America’s “trillion dollars”. But it also did not name which countries it means.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that in 2024, US had the highest trading deficit with China, followed by the European Union, Mexico, Vietnam, Ireland, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Canada, India, Thailand, Italy, Switzerland, Malaysia, Indonesia, Indonesia, Indonesia, France.

The Office of the United States Commercial Representative lists 21 countries for which it is “particularly interested”. These include many of the G20, as well as other “economies that have the largest deficits in commercial products with the United States,” according to the announcement.

They are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom.

But Trump further blurred the waters on Sunday for which countries will be in the spotlight when he rejected the idea that only 10 or 15 countries will face mutual duties on Wednesday.

The forthcoming duties will come over a number of others already announced by Trump, including customs duties in China, tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products that do not comply with the existing tripartite trade agreement, steel duties and aluminum duties and more recent duties.