Workers test the strength of temporary security fencing on Monday near the US Capitol building ahead of the presidential inauguration. FRANCIS CHUNG/AP
WASHINGTON — US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced plans to create a new agency called the External Revenue Service to collect tariffs and other revenues from foreign nations.
"We will begin charging those that make money off of us with Trade, and they will start paying," Trump said on Tuesday on his social media site, Truth Social. He compared his planned creation to the Internal Revenue Service, which is the nation's domestic tax collector.
The creation of a new agency requires an act of Congress, and Republicans hold the majority in both the House and the Senate.
Trump, who has vowed to shrink the size of government, would be creating a new agency to perform functions already handled by existing agencies, including the Commerce Department and the Customs and Border Protection, which collect duties and revenues from other nations.
The president-elect has tapped two business titans to lead his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a nongovernmental task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations, all part of what he calls his "Save America" agenda for a second term in the White House.
Billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are leading the DOGE's ambitious efforts to reduce the size and scope of the federal government.
Tariffs, with the threat of a potential 25 percent levy on all goods from some allies, have raised concerns among industry insiders.
Inefficient way
Economists have said the cost of the tariffs will be passed on to consumers and are generally skeptical of them, considering them the mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.
Democratic lawmakers were quick to criticize the External Revenue Service plan.
"No amount of silly rebranding will hide the fact that Trump is planning a multitrillion-dollar tax hike on American families and small businesses to pay for another round of tax handouts to the rich," Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement.
Also on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson ordered that flags at the US Capitol be raised to their full height on Inauguration Day, pausing a 30-day flag-lowering order following the death of former president Jimmy Carter.
The Republican leader's decision means that Trump will not take the oath of office for his second term under a half-staff flag, a prospect that he had previously complained about.
Agencies via Xinhua
