by Bridget Brown and Bernard Mcghee
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced far-reaching new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners — a 34% tax on imports from China and 20% on the European Union, among others — that threaten to dismantle much of the architecture of the global economy and trigger broader trade wars.
Trump, in a Rose Garden announcement, said he was placing elevated tariff rates on dozens of nations that run meaningful trade surpluses with the United States while imposing a 10% baseline tax on imports from all countries in response to what he called an economic emergency.
The action amounts to a historic tax hike that could push the global order to a breaking point. It kickstarts what could be a painful transition for many Americans as middle-class essentials such as housing, autos and clothing are expected to become more costly, while disrupting the alliances built to ensure peace and economic stability.
Trump’s tariffs have initially been met with measured reactions from key trading partners, highlighting the lack of appetite for a full-fledged trade war.
The fact that the tariffs fell most heavily on parts of the world sleeping through the night appeared to at least temporarily delay some of the potential outrage.
Trump presented the import taxes in the simplest terms: The U.S. would do to its trading partners what he said they had been doing to the U.S. for decades. Some countries have taken issue with the White House’s calculations.
The sweeping new tariffs announced Wednesday by U.S. President Donald Trump were met initially with measured reactions from key trading partners, highlighting the lack of appetite for a full-fledged trade war.
The fact that the tariffs fell most heavily on parts of the world sleeping through the night appeared to at least temporarily delay some of the potential outrage.
Trump presented the import taxes, which he calls “reciprocal tariffs” and range from 10% to 49%, in the simplest terms: the U.S. would do to its trading partners what he said they had been doing to the U.S. for decades.
“Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” he said. “But it is not going to happen anymore.”
The president promised that “Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country.” He framed it not just as an economic issue, but a question of national security that threatens “our very way of life.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says Trump’s measures are going to fundamentally change the international trading system but preserved a number of important elements of the commercial relationship between Canada and the U.S.
Spared for the moment from the latest round of tariffs were Canada and Mexico, so far as goods that already qualified under their free trade agreement with the United States.
The previously announced 25% steel and aluminum tariffs remain in place. Carney says the impact on the U.S. economy will be negative and that will impact Canada. Carney says the measures will impact millions of Canadians and his government will fight it with countermeasures.
He says he will meet with his Cabinet committee on U.S. Canada relations Wednesday evening and with the premiers of Canada’s provinces Thursday morning before he has more to say.
Tom Wark, the executive director of the National Association of Wine Retailers, said the tariffs will hurt wine sellers because many of the products they sell — like Champagne and prosecco — can only be made overseas.
Wark said higher prices for a discretionary item like wine will further challenge the industry, which has already been hurt by inflation and downturns in consumption.
“Tariffs on imported wines aid no one,” Wark said.
The new duties could raise the average U.S. tariff rate to as high as 25%, according to calculations by two different economists, from about 3%. Such an increase, if it remains in force, would leave U.S. duties at their highest level in decades.
Omair Sharif, an economist and founder of Inflation Insights, said the duties would even top the 20% rate put in place by the Smoot-Hawley tariffs that were imposed in 1933 and are widely blamed for worsening the Great Depression.
Still, economists said the fact that the tariffs won’t take effect until April 5 at least leaves room for some last-minute negotiations that could delay or alter the import taxes.
