The U.S. will create an “External Revenue Service,” Trump said in his remarks, a play on the name of the Treasury’s tax collection agency. Trump asserted that the U.S. will rebalance trade by collecting taxes from foreign countries,

Moments after taking office for the second time, President Donald Trump vowed to "tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens." Alas, that's

I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families, instead of taxing our citizens we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. For this purpose,

The creation of a new agency requires an act of Congress, and Republicans hold the majority of both the House and the Senate.

I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families, says Donald Trump

This announcement follows Trump’s threat last month to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (the BRICS nations) if they create a new BRICS currency or back any other currency to replace the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

The parallel with the Internal Revenue Service is seen as a signal of the president-elect’s determination to enact sweeping import duties.