By AFP and published by CNA
Washington – US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Apr. 2) unveiled a raft of punishing tariffs targeting countries around the world including some of its closest trading partners, in a move that risks sparking a ruinous trade war.
Thailand has been hit with a 36 percent reciprocal tariff.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden against a backdrop of US flags, Trump slapped the most stinging tariffs on China and the European Union on what he called “Liberation Day.”
The dollar fell 1 percent against the euro and slipped against other major currencies as Trump was speaking.
“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” Trump said.
Trump reserved some of the heaviest blows for what he called the “nations that treat us badly,” including 34 percent on goods from superpower rival China, 20 percent on key ally the European Union, 24 percent on Japan and 26 percent on India.
Vietnam was hit with 46 percent. Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar were given reciprocal tariffs ranging between 24 percent and 49 percent.
Brunei, meanwhile, was hit with 24 percent.
Singapore faces a 10 per cent US reciprocal tariff.
But the 78-year-old Republican, who held up a chart with a list of levies, said that he was “very kind” and so was only imposing half the amount that those countries taxed US exports.
For the rest, Trump said he would impose a “baseline” tariff of 10 percent, including Britain.
An audience of cabinet members, as well as workers in hard hats from industries including steel, oil and gas, whooped and cheered as Trump said the tariffs would “make America wealthy again.”
“This is Liberation Day,” Trump said, adding that it would “forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed.”
Sweeping auto tariffs of 25 percent that Trump announced last week are also due to take effect at 12.01am EST (11.01p.m., Thailand time) Thursday.
“Golden age”
Trump has telegraphed the move for weeks, insisting tariffs will keep the United States from being “ripped off” by other countries and spur a new “Golden Age” of American industry.
But many experts warn the tariffs risk triggering a recession at home as costs are passed on to US consumers, and a damaging trade war abroad.
The world has been on edge ahead of Trump’s announcement.
Markets have been volatile as investors hedged their bets, and the announcement came after Wall Street stocks closed.
The tariffs will also reinforce fears that Trump is backing even further away from US allies towards a new order based on a vision of American supremacy.
US trading partners have vowed swift retribution, while also trying to persuade Trump to reach deals to avoid tariffs in the first place.
Germany warned Wednesday that trade wars hurt “both sides”.
The European Union will react to new Trump tariffs “before the end of April”, said a French government spokeswoman.
The 27-nation bloc’s initial salvo would counter US actions on steel and aluminum, followed by sector-by-sector measures.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has made intense but so far fruitless efforts to win a carve-out from Trump, said a “trade war is in nobody’s interests”.
“We have prepared for all eventualities, and we will rule nothing out,” he told parliament.
Recession fears
Trump has had a long love affair with tariffs, insisting in the face of experts that they are a cure-all for America’s trade imbalances and economic ills.
The billionaire insists the levies will bring a “rebirth” of America’s hollowed-out manufacturing capacity, and says companies can avoid tariffs by moving to the United States.
But critics say US businesses and consumers could bear the burden if importers pass on the cost, adding that the policy could increase risks of a recession.
“If this trade war continues through Labour Day (on Sep. 1), the US economy will likely suffer a recession this year,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, told AFP.
Negotiations are likely to continue though as countries seek to halt the tariffs
Trump has previously been persuaded however to halt tariffs on neighbours Canada and Mexico while trade talks continued.
He ordered levies on both on the grounds that they had failed to stop the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States.
“I understand that it’s a game of tug-of-war,” truck driver Alejandro Espinoza told AFP as he waited in a queue to cross the Mexican-US border.
“But unfortunately, we’re the ones who pay in the end.”
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: US President Donald Trump delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden entitled “Make America Wealthy Again” at the White House in Washington, DC, on Apr. 2, 2025. Photos: AFP/Brendan Smialowski and published by CNA
Below: US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order for tariffs increase. Photo:Reuters/Kevin Lamarque and published by ABC News
Further below: White House tariff charts publihsed by CNBC
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