“President Trump said Saturday the U.S. will treat value added tax systems the same as tariffs, for purposes of helping to calculate the reciprocal levies on other countries he ordered earlier this week,” Axios reports.
“At least 175 countries globally have a VAT, per the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, meaning it could impact the math on any reciprocal tariff for most nations around the world.
”“The impact could be most immediate in the European Union, which has standardized value added taxes with an average rate of almost 22%.”