Trump announces new US tariffs of at least 10% on all imports
US president’s repeated threat of tariffs has spurred waves of counter threats and fears of a global trade war
After holding the global economy in thrall, issuing erratic tariff threats and undercutting decades-old alliances, United States President Donald Trump imposed tit-for-tat reciprocal import tariffs of at least 10 per cent on Wednesday on broad swathes of the planet.
The policy combines universal tariffs on all trading partners with additional, tailored levies for specific countries, including those traditionally considered allies of the US.
“We will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of cheating,” Trump said at a White House event, announcing that “we will charge them approximately half of what they have been charging us. So the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal”.
“We will establish a minimum baseline tariff of 10 per cent,” he said, highlighting the tariffs imposed by other countries on American imports and the levies the US would apply to goods coming from nearly 60 countries.
Chinese imports will face 34 per cent tariffs, while those from the European Union will be levied 20 per cent duties. Imports from Japan, South Korea and India will be taxed an additional 24, 25 and 26 per cent respectively.
Imports from Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia will face 46, 24 and 32 per cent tariffs respectively. At 49 per cent, Cambodia will be slapped with one of the highest tariff rates.