Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump doubled down Saturday on sweeping tariffs he unleashed on countries around the world, warning Americans of pain ahead, but promising historic investment and prosperity. The comments came as Trump’s widest-ranging trade measures took effect in a move that could trigger retaliation and escalating economic tensions, with the British and French leaders saying “nothing should be off the table” in response.
Trump, acknowledging global turbulence, urged Americans to be patient. “We have been the dumb and helpless ‘whipping post,’ but not any longer. We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before,” he wrote on Truth Social. “This is an economic revolution, and we will win,” the Republican president added. “Hang tough, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”
A 10 percent “baseline” tariff came into place just after midnight, hitting most US imports except goods from Mexico and Canada, as Trump invoked emergency economic powers. But in a potential sign of disagreement between Trump and close advisor Elon Musk, the tech billionaire on Saturday said he hoped the US and Europe could move eventually toward a “zero-tariff situation.” That could effectively create “a free-trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk said in talks in Rome with Italy’s far-right deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini. The EU, Japan, and China are among around 60 trading partners set to face even higher rates on April 9.
Trump’s steep 34 percent tariff on Chinese goods, set to kick in next week, triggered Beijing’s announcement of a 34 percent tariff on US products from April 10. Beijing also said it would sue Washington at the World Trade Organization and restrict exports of rare earth elements used in medical and electronics technology. “China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close,” Trump said in his post. “They, and many other nations, have treated us unsustainably badly.”
As other major trading partners eyed possible recession, the French and British leaders said “nothing should be off the table.” At the same time, “a trade war was in nobody’s interests,” French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed in a call, Starmer’s office said.
**- Markets collapse -** Wall Street went into free fall Friday, following similar plunges in Asia and Europe as economists warn tariffs could dampen growth and fuel inflation. Trump’s latest tariffs have notable exclusions, however. They do not stack onto recently imposed 25 percent tariffs hitting imports of steel, aluminum, and automobiles. Also temporarily spared are copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and lumber, alongside “certain critical minerals” and energy products, the White House said. But Trump has ordered investigations into copper and lumber, which could soon lead to further levies. He has threatened to hit other industries like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as well, meaning any reprieve might be short-lived. Canada and Mexico are unaffected by the latest move as they already face separate duties of up to 25 percent on goods entering the United States outside a North America trade agreement.
**- Retaliation risk -** While Trump’s staggered deadlines allow space for countries to negotiate, “if they can’t get a reprieve, they are likely to retaliate, as China already has,” Oxford Economics warned this week. EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the bloc, which faces a 20 percent tariff, will act in “a calm, carefully phased, unified way” and allow time for talks. But he said it “won’t stand idly by.” France and Germany have said the EU could respond by imposing a tax on US technology companies. Japan’s prime minister called for a “calm-headed” approach after Trump unveiled 24 percent tariffs on Japanese-made goods.
Since returning to the presidency, Trump has hit imports from Canada and Mexico with tariffs over illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling claims, and imposed an additional 20 percent rate on goods from China. Come April 9, the added levy on Chinese products this year will reach 54 percent. Trump’s 25 percent auto tariffs also took effect this week, and Jeep-owner Stellantis has paused production at some Canadian and Mexican plants. Trump’s new global levies mark “the most sweeping tariff hike since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the 1930 law best remembered for triggering a global trade war and deepening the Great Depression,” said the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Oxford Economics estimates the action will push the average effective US tariff rate to 24 percent, “higher even than those seen in the 1930s.”
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