Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff numbers questioned for simply 'not adding up'

Donald Trump has announced sweeping tariffs that will be imposed against almost every country in the world as part of his 'Liberation Day' plans.

The US President declared that for the past 50 years America had been 'looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike'.

The UK was hit with a 10 percent tariff, which is the minimum amount the US has imposed on other countries, and the same amount that was placed on the Heard and McDonald Islands, an uninhabited set of islands populated only by penguins.

Some countries were left off the list, including the likes of Russia, Canada and Mexico for a variety of reasons, but from this point on a gargantuan amount of the world has been hit with tariffs.

When Trump announced the measures he pointed to placards, which called them 'reciprocal tariffs', framing it as though the US was imposing these tariffs because other countries were already doing it to them.

He put the figures on how much the US would impose on other countries right next to figures labelled 'tariffs charged to the USA including currency manipulation and trade barriers'.

It's these numbers which have caused some confusion as the method as to how the US calculated them has been questioned.

The 'Tariffs charged to the USA' column has some very questionable numbers (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The 'Liberation Day' tariffs

A tariff is a charge a country can impose on imports from other countries, and it's paid by the importer.

For example, if a company in the US wanted to import something from the UK, it'll now need to pay the US government 10 percent of the value of the thing imported as an extra payment.

That's on top of buying the thing, so the US importer would be paying the price to buy something and then giving 10 percent on top of that to the US government.

This hurts the importer as they have to pay more, and it tends to hurt the general public as well because the extra cost will likely be passed onto them through price rises.

It can also be painful for the exporter as their customers from the country imposing the tariffs are less likely to buy from them.

The numbers have been questioned as people worry Trump is targeting countries for selling more to the US than the US sells to them (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

What about these other figures?

Trump's charts claimed that other countries had imposed massive tariffs on the US along with other expenses 'including currency manipulation and trade barriers'.

Many of the 'reciprocal tariffs' Trump has imposed onto other countries are half this stated figure, or 10 percent depending on which is higher.

In one example of this, Trump claimed that China tariffs American goods to the tune of 67 percent, but concerns have been raised by some who have warned that his numbers don't add up.

Trump claimed the tariffs were a 'declaration of economic independence' (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

What doesn't make sense?

The US government has published their methodology, which appears to generate a figure by dividing the US trade deficit with a country by the amount America imports from them.

NBC crunched the numbers and reported that last year China sold $295.4 billion more worth of stuff to the US than the US did to China, and sold $438.9 billion worth of stuff to the US overall.

Divide the first figure by the second and you'll learn that $295.4 billion is about 67 percent of $438.9 billion.

Trump's chart said China charged them 67 percent in 'tariffs charged to the USA including currency manipulation and trade barriers', and NBC also found this equation worked out for other countries on the list as well.

That would mean countries are being punished with higher tariffs not because they impose high tariffs of their own on the US, but because they sell more to the US than the US sells to them.

Sky News reported that in the case of Lesotho, a small African country of 2.3 million people, which has been hit with the highest tariff rate of 50 percent as Trump's chart claims they impose a 99 percent levy on American goods, they sell a lot more to the US because they export precious gems to America.

Sky points out that the US is going to have a trade deficit with some countries because they have things the US doesn't have, but the US doesn't have an equal value amount of things the people in the other country wants or needs.

It's not like the US can just replace this stuff domestically either, leading to questions being asked.