Yesterday evening, President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on most countries in the world in what he is describing as “reciprocal tariffs”. He stated that in many cases they are not “full reciprocal” implying he is being soft and compromising on many countries that are unfairly tariffing US products.
A baseline tariff of 10% has been established on all countries. Products that are unavailable in the US will be exempt from tariffs and these include bullion, timber, minerals, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. A 20% tariff was imposed on EU products, following the announcement of a 25% tariff on all European vehicles and parts. Israel was hit with a 17% tariff, despite having announced the abolition of all tariffs on U.S. products just a day earlier
An Australian overseas territory called Heard Island and McDonald Islands with no population was tariffed 10%. An overseas territory of New Zealand called Tokelau, also with no population was tariffed as well. The Norwegian Antarctic islands Svalbard and Jan Mayen were tariffed 10% along with many other countries. In total 184 countries have been tariffed excluding the European Union which would add that to 211 countries. Taiwan was also listed as one of the countries in the list with a 32% tariff imposed. Sanctioned countries like Russia, Belarus, Iran and North Korea were not in the list. China has been slapped with the highest tariff at 34%, but this is over and above the already existing tariffs making tariffs on Chinese products at a minimum of 54%.
The White House is protesting against Europe’s VAT rules which it says are equivalent to a double-whammy of tariffs after border tax and are costing US companies up to €200 billion per year. President Trump is also accusing some countries of currency manipulation but some countries he accused of this practice such as Ecuador use the US Dollar as their base currency.
President Trump announced that up to $6 trillion will be invested in the US as a result of his tariffs with many major companies investing including Apple, Oracle, NVIDIA, TSMC, META, CMA, Merck, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and others. He described this day as “Liberation Day” for his historic announcement, which he said would liberate the US from unfair trade practices, and declared that a new “Golden Age of America” has begun.
Newsroom
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