President-elect Donald Trump's economic team are working on a plan to hike trade tariffs gradually in order to try and minimise the inflationary effects and not spook financial markets too much, according to a Bloomberg report.
One proposal suggested by advisors to the team is to increase tariffs incrementally by 2% to 5% per month, sources told the newswire, under emergency powers.
Using this staged approach is intended to also strengthen the US negotiating position.
The ideas are still at an early stage and have not yet been formally presented to Trump, the report said.
In his election campaign, Trump threatened a 'universal' 10 to 20% tariff hike and warned he would impose a 25% additional tariff on products from Canada and Mexico on his first day in office, as well as a 10% tariff hike on Chinese goods.
There have been suggestions Trump was using the threats as a negotiating tactic.