How Countries Responded To Trump's Tariff Threats
Washington DC, US: United States President Donald Trump shook financial markets once again with his “reciprocal” tariff plans, amidst the growing fears of global trade war. Trump announced a 10 percentage “minimum baseline tariff” on nearly all imports into the United States. Trump claims that the new import taxes were designed to reduce trade deficits and bring foreign manufacturing back to US shores. The Republican claims that they would pave path for future tax cuts.
Invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, the US President announced a 10 percent tariff on all countries, which is scheduled to take effect on April 5. He also imposed “individualised” tariffs for countries that have large trade surpluses with the US or that impose higher duties on American imports. Those tariffs would come into effect four days later, on April 9. Trump said that his team calculated the “individualised” tariffs by taking half of what he claimed those countries charged the US for its exports.
UK was hit with 10 percent tariffs, and European Union was hit with 20 percent tariffs. At the same time, China was slapped with 34 percent tariffs. This is on top of the 20 percent tariffs that Trump had already imposed on Chinese imports since coming into office on January 20. In total, US tariffs on China are at 54 percentage.
Also Read: Trump Puts High Tariffs On Asian Countries: Most On Vietnam, Cambodia And SriLanka
Vietnam will be hit with tariff of 46 percentage, and Thailand will be hit with 36 percentage. While Mexico and Canada, two of largest trading partners and immediate neighbours of US, were missing from the list of recent tariff’s list. However, they both already face 25 percent tariffs for all exports to Washington that are not covered by the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade pact.
Countries were quick to retaliate on Trump’s tariff threats.
China’s Ministry of Commerce promised “countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests” in response to US “bullying”. While the statement said that “the United States has drawn the so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’ based on subjective and unilateral assessments, which is inconsistent with international trade rules”, it did not say anything on imposing retaliatory countermeasures. The country urged Trump administration to cancel the tariffs and “properly resolve differences with its trading partners through equal dialogue”.
Taiwan called US tariffs “highly unreasonable”. Michelle Lee, the Cabinet spokesperson said that Taipei “deeply regretted” Trump’s announcement of a 32 percent tariff on its exports.
Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the tariffs were “not the act of a friend” and “totally unwarranted”.
Also Read: US Tariff Chart Includes ‘Taiwan As A Country’ In Country-Wise Data
Ursula von der Leyen, President of European Commission said that a new 20 percent tariff on the EU, called the measure a “major blow to the world economy”. She added that “the consequences will be dire for millions of people around the globe”.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that, “during this crisis, we must act with purpose…my government will fight US tariffs”. Ottawa pledged to respond to tariffs with retaliatory measures.
The European Union is “ready for a trade war” with the US and could “attack online services”, said French government spokesperson Sophie Primas. She also said that the EU was preparing a two-stage rebuttal, with “an initial response”, to be put in place around mid-April, concerning aluminum and steel. EU will also target “all products and services”, with the measures probably ready at the end of April. Primas said the move is still being discussed.
“China is likely going to release some type of retaliation …,” Nick Marro, a principal economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit told Al Jazeera.
At the same time, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said that she would avoid pursuing “tit-for-tat” tariffs. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also ruled out any immediate retaliation and promised to keep a “cool head … in the coming days”.
(With inputs from agencies)
