AMNA NAWAZ: President Trump ramped up his trade battles with countries around the world today after he announced a plan for new reciprocal tariffs that could take effect this spring.

The tariffs would match the tax rates that other countries charge on American-made imports for allies and adversaries alike.

And the president insisted that tariffs would collect so much money they would help reduce the debt.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: They say this is going to be the thing that makes our country really prosperous again.

And this is going to be what pays down the $36 trillion in debt and all the other things.

And this is going to be -- this is an amazing day.

This -- I think this is going to be a very big day and in a very positive way for our country.

AMNA NAWAZ: Once again, there are many concerns about the president's goals, questions about when the tariffs might take effect and the reaction to them.

Mark Zandi is chief economist at Moody's Analytics and joins us now.

Mark, thanks for being with us.

Let's just begin with your reaction to today's announcement from President Trump, the scope of what he's announcing and also the way in which the president is proposing a new regime of reciprocal tariffs here.

MARK ZANDI, Chief Economist, Moody's Analytics: Yes, I am worried about this, very disconcerting.

Feels like the president's moving to broad-based tariffs, if not so-called universal tariffs on every country and every product, something closer to that.

And I think that's a problem.

It means higher inflation for U.S. consumers.

It's a tax on American consumers.

And just to give you a sense of the magnitude of that, just the tariffs on Chinese imports in the U.S., the 10 percent tariff that President Trump just imposed, if sustained, that will reduce the real purchasing power of the typical American family by between $200 and $250 a year.

So just do the arithmetic.

You can -- the impacts will be very serious.

And then it's going to cost jobs, because it's unimaginable that the rest of the world is just going to stand still.

They're going to respond.

They're going to respond with their own tariffs and other trade restrictions.

And, of course, that's going to cost American jobs.

And at the end of the day, it's not only going to raise inflation and the cost of living.

It's going to reduce the amount of jobs and the strength of the economy.

So I just don't -- it's just a lose-lose for everybody, including the folks overseas and here at home.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, the president did say these aren't set to go into place until April, if they do it all.

And it does inject some more uncertainty into the economy.

But when you look at how investors and the markets are reacting, do they show the same concern that you have right now?

MARK ZANDI: Not yet.

I mean, they don't believe - - I think investors don't quite believe that the president's going to follow through on the tariffs that he's articulated because he hasn't, right?

They're on again.

They're off again, this country, that country, this product, that product.

Hard to know.

And I think investors are convinced, at least at this point in time, that the president's not going to follow through.

But if the president actually does follow through, I think we will see a clear reaction in the stock market.

In fact, you can go back to the tariffs that the president imposed in his first term, lots of really good research that was done by the New York Fed, for example, that shows the impact on businesses in terms of profitability, in terms of jobs, and also in terms of the impact on the stock market.

So, buckle up.

I think, if the president actually follows through -- and, again, who knows?

But if he does, I think the stock market is going to take it on the chin.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, you have heard the White House argument for these tariffs from the president and from his economic advisers that these tariffs serve to even out trade imbalances with other countries and that, if there is short-term pain in any way, they say, overall, over the long term, it will lead to greater productivity and lower prices for American consumers.

Does that argument make sense to you?

Is that grounded in anything we have seen before?

MARK ZANDI: No, absolutely not.

I mean, the history -- and we have had a long history of tariffs across the globe, including here in the United States.

It is very clear that the greater the tariffs and trade restrictions, the less trade that you have, the worse off economies are.

I mean, there's near-term effects.

I talked about the effect of the higher tariffs on the cost of living for Americans.

There's longer-term effects.

I mean, it reduces competitive -- the competition in markets, which makes productivity lower, slower, and ultimately reduces the standard of living of everybody.

And, again, it's a lose-lose.

It's not like someone wins, someone loses in the grand scheme of things.

Everyone's going to lose here.

So that -- to argue the other -- the alternative, is, I think, in the face of historical experience.

AMNA NAWAZ: Mark, we should point out President Trump is not the first president to employ and levy reciprocal tariffs.

What is different to you about the way this president is using them to presidents in the past?

MARK ZANDI: There's two big differences.

The potential scale.

I mean, the tariffs that, let's say, President Biden put into place, those $18 billion additional tariffs on Chinese product, E.V.

batteries, solar panels, very strategic, saying, hey, look, you're not playing fair, you got to play fair, and this is a penalty if you don't.

In the case of President Trump, again, a lot of uncertainty here, but President Trump is talking about broad-scale tariffs across the board.

And the second thing, the uncertainty.

Just think about all the switches and changes and this tariff, that tariff, it's on again, it's off again.

I'm going to impose tariffs on this and on that.

I think businesses are getting dizzy with all that.

How can you make a large investment decision, a hiring decision if you don't know what the tariffs will be?

By the way, Amna, the other important point in terms of the uncertainty is, these are being done under executive order.

It's not legislation.

It's not like Congress voting and saying, hey, I want to raise these tariffs.

It's the president imposing them.

So, if I'm a businessperson thinking -- seeing that, I know that those tariffs can go away with another executive order, and certainly the next president could change them.

So if that's the case and I'm making a decision about an investment that's going to last 10, 15, 20 years, I'm just not going to do it, because I just don't know what those tariffs are going to be.

And I don't know what it means for my business.

AMNA NAWAZ: Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

Mark, thank you.

Good to speak with you.

MARK ZANDI: Thank you.