An economist has said he believes that US President Donald Trump used AI to calculate his so-called 'reciprocal' tariffs.
Trump claimed that last week’s tariffs were “reciprocal” for nations “that treat the US badly”.
However, many have struggled to see where these figures came from and how they were calculated.
Economist David McWilliams told The Pat Kenny Show that he believes ChatGPT could have calculated the long list of figures displayed at the White House rose garden on Wednesday.
“Let’s say they arrive at the figure for 39% - now, where’s that figure come from?” he said.
“The formula is – and again, I do think it’s a ChatGPT thing, I’ve never seen it in an economics textbook – they are taking the trade surplus or deficit the European Union has with the United States.
“The US exports $370 billion to the European Union, but it imports $605 billion – that leaves a trade deficit of $235 billion.
“Now, if you divide that $235 billion by the $605 billion, which is our exports to the US, you come up with a magic figure of .39.”
Mr McWilliams said this figure is “entirely made up”.
“Now, what it does for Ireland is interesting,” he said.
“Had we been isolated, for example, like Britain, and not been in the EU, because our trade surplus with the Americans is so much bigger than the EU average, we would have had a figure that would have dropped out of this formula of 68%.
“Which would have led to tariffs of 35% on all Irish goods rather than the 20% - so we should be counting our blessings that we’re in the European Union.”
European markets plunge as the Hong Kong exchange closes after its worst day in 28 years.
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According to Mr McWilliams, the reason he believes AI was used in these calculations is down to the bizarre way that offshore territories and islands were classed.
“Why then did certain islands with penguins get tariffed? And why, for example, was Gibraltar not included in the UK, or Réunion, the French island, not included in France?” he said.
“The reason is, I believe, that they didn’t use the UN list of countries to put tariffs on, but they used internet portals – i.e, the internet domain of a country.
“So, ‘.ie’ means you’re Ireland, ‘.co.uk’ means in the UK; so I think they tariffed using a bizarre formula.
“They stuck tariffs on countries, not by looking at the UN table of countries, but they put it into a little algorithm which used internet domains.”
Mr McWillians said this could be why countries that have no people living on them, but do have an internet domain, got tariffed.
Main image: President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
