President Donald Trump speaks during a tariff announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 2. Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg.
President Donald Trump is imposing tariffs on U.S. trading partners worldwide, his biggest assault yet on a global economic system he has long bemoaned as unfair.
Trump said today that he will apply a minimum 10 percent tariff on all exporters to the United States. The president, displaying a chart, indicated that dozens of countries with the largest trade imbalances will face even higher rates. China will face a 34 percent rate, while the European Union faces a 20 percent levy and Vietnam sees a 46 percent tariff.
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“For years, hard-working American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense. But now it’s our turn to prosper,” Trump said during an event in the White House Rose Garden.
The higher “reciprocal” rates targeting nations the Trump administration labels the worst offenders are based on a government tally of the levies and non-tariff barriers those countries impose on U.S. goods. Under Trump’s plan, those countries facing higher, customized rates will be hit with a levy equal to one-half of that calculated amount. Other nations slapped with larger tariffs include Japan at 24 percent, South Korea at 25 percent, India at 26 percent, Cambodia at 49 percent, and Taiwan at 32 percent.
“This is not full reciprocal. This is kind reciprocal,” Trump said. He indicated that he would consider lowering rates if other nations remove their trade barriers on U.S. exports. “I say terminate your own tariffs, drop your barriers, don’t manipulate your currencies,” Trump said.
Oil prices reversed course, turning negative briefly in post-settlement trade. The United States relies on European shipments of fuel to meet demand on the East Coast, where there are few refineries remaining. The U.S. also exports crude to many of the countries on the tariff list.
Trump declared a national emergency tied to the U.S. trade deficit, which stood at more than $918 billion for goods and services in 2024, allowing him to use unilateral authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose the most sweeping set of tariffs in generations. The administration is aiming revive American manufacturing with its protectionist shift and collect hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue from the new levies to fill government coffers.
The president’s move is a historic gamble that is expected to raise the cost of trillions of dollars in goods shipped annually to the U.S. from other countries. It also could ignite a worldwide trade war marked by tit-for-tat strikes that destabilize supply chains, stoke inflation, embolden America’s economic rivals, and encourage foreign powers to form new alliances that exclude the U.S. That dynamic presents a political problem for Trump: Economic pain from the tariffs could come quickly, while any gain in the form of a restructured U.S. economy could take years or longer to materialize.
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