DONALD Trump has hailed his Liberation Day a major success as the world processes a potential economic Armageddon.
The US President took a wrecking ball to 75 years of a global trading system and roared: “The operation is over! The patient lived, and is healing. The prognosis is that the patient will be far stronger, bigger, better and more resilient than ever before.”
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he’ll take appropriate measures to defend their companies and their workers[/caption]
French President Emmanuel Macron says Trump’s tariffs are a ‘shock for international trade’[/caption]
He added, on his Truth Social account: “Make America great again!!!”
The slapping of a 10 per cent base tariff on any country exporting to the US – with higher duties on countries Trump feels ripped off by – come into effect between tomorrow and next Thursday.
Panic-stricken countries all over the globe were reacting today with moves to counter Wednesday’s big announcement from the White House.
Spain has offered to help weather the impact of new US tariffs, offering its companies a financial package of loans and direct aid worth €14.1 billion.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva added: “Faced with the decision of the United States to impose an additional tax on Brazilian products, we will take all appropriate measures to defend our companies and our workers.”
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever called a US-EU trade war “wealth-destroying protectionist madness” and appealed for proportional countermeasures to avoid disaster.
Switzerland agreed, where President Karin Keller-Sutter says he will not counter Trump’s measures at this stage and said: “An escalation is not in Switzerland’s interest.”
French President Emmanuel Macron says Trump’s tariffs are a “shock for international trade”, saying it will have a “massive impact” on the European economy.
“The decision that was announced last night is a brutal and unfounded decision,” he says, adding that the US economy and consumers will emerge “poorer and weaker”.
A 25 per cent tariff on car exports came into force today, on a day when global markets from London to New York and Tokyo plummeted.
GLOBAL MARKET MELTDOWN
US tech companies including Apple and Walmart and Nike led the global market meltdown amid fears of a spike in costs across a wide range of industries.
More than 90 per cent of Apple products are manufactured in China, a country hard hit by tariffs.
Its shares fell 8.6 per cent.
Trump argues the tariffs will encourage US consumers to buy more American-made goods and in turn boost the country’s economy, increasing the amount of tax raised.
GLOBAL TRADE WAR
Experts fear this could lead to a global trade war, and recession.
Major corporations made moves of their own, including Volkswagen which will introduce an “import fee” on vehicles affected by 25 per cent tariffs.
The German automaker has temporarily halted rail shipments of vehicles from Mexico.
Sweden’s Volvo Cars will increase its production of vehicles in the United States and probably produce an additional model there, according to CEO Hakan Samuelsson who said: “We will have to increase the number of cars we build in the US, and surely move another model to that factory.”
Meanwhile the UK government is drawing up a list of US products it could hit with retaliatory tariffs after President Donald Trump announced a wave of new import taxes.
The 417 page list includes everything from clothes to horses.
This is a toughening of the government’s stance as ministers seek to finalise a trade deal with the US.
‘RECIPROCAL’ TARIFF
While the US President hit the UK with a 10 per cent “reciprocal” tariff, UK Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds revealed the UK charges an average of about 4 per cent tariffs on imports from the US.
Russia didn’t make Trump’s tariffs list.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted this was because existing US sanctions on Russia “preclude any meaningful trade” and noting that Cuba, Belarus and North Korea were also not included.
However, nations with even less trade with the US – such as Syria, which exported $11m of products last year – were on the list.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has welcomed the fact Mexico was left out of Donald Trump’s latest tariffs list.
She said Mexico’s exclusion was good for Mexico, and that the country has built a good relationship with the US through dialogue and cooperation.
In the US, two senior US lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee are introducing legislation seeking to rein in Trump’s ability to impose tariffs.
The bill from Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democrat Maria Cantwell is modeled on the War Powers Resolution of 1973, and would re-establish limits on the president’s ability to impose unilateral tariffs without approval from Congress.
‘TRUST IN PRESIDENT TRUMP’
Meanwhile, White House spokesperson Leavitt has tried to reassure US markets, telling CNN: “To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say, ‘Trust in President Trump.’
“This is a president who is doubling down on his proven economic formula”, adding: “the United States is no longer going to be cheated by foreign nations”.
She also ruled out the possibility of Mr Trump pulling back any of the tariffs before they are implemented over the coming weekend.
She said: “The president made it clear yesterday this is not a negotiation.
“He’s always willing to pick up the phone to answer calls, but he laid out the case yesterday for why we are doing it,” she said.
“These countries around the world have had 70 years to do the right thing by the American people and they have chosen not to. They have ripped off American workers. They have taken our jobs overseas. The president is putting an end to that yesterday.”
