News about Trump unveiling sweeping new tariffs on trading partners runs on TV at a jade shop in Taipei
News about Trump unveiling sweeping new tariffs on trading partners runs on TV at a jade shop in Taipei
Laptops from Taiwan, wine from Italy, frozen shrimp from India, Nike sneakers from Vietnam and Irish butter.
These products are found in homes across the US, a testament to America’s enduring role as a champion of free trade and its standing as the most lucrative market for goods from around the world.
They are now among the vast categories of goods subject to additional taxes after President Donald Trump on Wednesday imposed universal tariffs on all US trade partners as well as additional, heavier duties on 60 countries he deemed the “worst offenders” of unfair trade practices.
In a sharp shift away from decades of trade policy, Trump instituted a 10 per cent baseline duty on all goods imported into the US. In addition, other nations will be charged a so-called reciprocal tariff at an even higher rate next week.
For the European Union and China, the two largest US trading partners, the White House imposed tariffs of 20 per cent and 34 per cent. The additional levy on China will be added to a 20 per cent tariff previously imposed by Trump.
Even close allies such as Japan and South Korea were not spared. Neither were countries like Australia and Brazil that buy more from America than they sell to it.
The announcement, which Trump had hailed as America’s “Liberation Day”, sent shock waves across the world and raised the spectre of a global trade war. Stock markets tumbled on the news, as investors were surprised at the size and scope of the tariffs.
Allies and adversaries are scrambling to make sense of Trump’s tariff barrage, which has lifted US import duties to their highest levels in more than a century and showed no sign of relenting. Some threatened to retaliate. Others openly pressed for negotiations, while some quietly pushed for concessions through back channels.
China accused America of “unilateral bullying”, pledging to take “firm countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests”.
“There are no winners in a trade war,” the commerce ministry said, urging the US to use dialogue for resolvingtrade issues.
The tariffs on China have likely dimmed hope of a meeting between the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and Trump, who has expressed interest ina summit.
In Brussels, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said in an early-morning news conference that the bloc would be united in its response to the tariffs. “If you take on one of us, you take on all of us,” she said. She said the global economy would “massively suffer” from the tariffs. While urging negotiation, she said the bloc was preparing further countermeasures in addition to the retaliatory tariffs it had already prepared for the earlier tax on foreign steeland aluminum.
The response from Japan, the largest overseas investor in the US, was more restrained. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called the tariffs “extremely regrettable”. But he refrained from talk of retaliation, saying that his government was trying to impress upon the Trump administration that Japan is helping the US to industrialise again.
Britain also did not suggest it would immediately retaliate. Instead, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said negotiations towards a trade deal with the US would continue.
In South Korea, the tariffs hit as the country is reeling under a political crisis that has left it without an elected leader.
Acting President Han Duck-soo called on Thursday for talks with US officials to shield the export-reliant economy from the impact of US tariffs and ordered emergency support measures for businesses.
German economy minister Robert Habeck said on Thursday that Trump would buckle under pressure from Germany and Europe in an escalating trade war.
The tariffs will put a strain on the US’s exports as well, said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. At a media conference in Berlin, Scholz also pointed to complex supply chains: “Sometimes there are so many supply chain dependencies that some things are sent back and forth a 100 times. You cannot simply stop that.”
He added: “Even if Europe did nothing (in response), it would lead to economic difficulties in the US.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is due to announce a package of measures later on Thursday to cushion the impact of the new US tariffs on companies and consumers.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou said the introduction of tariffs on most goods imported to the US marked a catastrophe for the world economy.
In Brazil, the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said it was evaluating retaliatory measures.
Asia was particularly hard hit by Trump’s plan. Vietnam, a beneficiary of companies moving production out of China during the first Trump presidency, got slapped with a 46 per cent levy. Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia were all dealt import duties of more than 30 per cent. The White House put a 26 per cent tariff on imports from India.
For decades, exports have served as a pathway to economic prosperity for developing Asian countries emerging from conflict, crisis or poverty. The latest tariffs punished countries like Taiwan and Japan that have succeeded in modernising their economies through trade, and they also darkened the prospects for poorer nations like Cambodia and Bangladesh still looking to follow that route.
Cambodia, a producer of clothing and footwear, was hit with a 49 per cent tariff. The US is the country’s largest export market.
“As a small country, we just want to survive,” said Sok Eysan, a spokesman for Cambodia’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party.
New York Times News Service and Reuters