President Donald Trump was expected to impose sweeping new reciprocal tariffs on global trading partners, upending decades of rules-based trade, risking cost increases and likely drawing retaliation from all sides.
Details of the tariff plans, styled by Trump as America’s “Liberation Day”, were still being formulated ahead of a White House Rose Garden announcement ceremony scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern Time (2000 GMT).
The new duties are due to take effect immediately after Trump announces them, while a separate 25% global tariff on auto imports will take effect on April 3.
Trump has said his reciprocal tariff plans are a move to equalize generally lower U.S. tariff rates with those charged by other countries and counteract their non-tariff barriers that disadvantage U.S. exports.
But the format of the duties was unclear amid reports that Trump was considering a 20% universal tariff.
“Trump’s planned levies will be negative for all”. European Central Bank President, Christine Lagarde, said.
“It will be negative the world over and the density and the durability of the impact will vary depending on the scope, on the products targeted, on how long it lasts, on whether or not there are negotiations,” she said.
As a nervous world awaited details of the tariff plans, stocks retreated, while safe-haven gold held near record highs.
“I can’t recall a situation where the stakes were this high and yet the outcome was so unpredictable,” Chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, Steve Sosnick, said.
“The devil is going to be in the details and nobody knows the details.”
Across sectors, from cars to ocean freight shipping, luxury goods and beyond, business leaders waited to see what would hit them, all the more so as Trump has invoked emergency powers to swiftly add, and occasionally retract and reinstate tariffs.
“You cannot make important decisions on your supply chain when the rules of the game keep changing,” Chief analyst at freight pricing platform Xeneta, Peter Sand said.
A former Trump first-term trade official said that “Trump was more likely to impose comprehensive tariff rates on individual countries at somewhat lower levels”.
The former official added that “the number of countries facing these duties would likely exceed the approximately 15 nations that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had previously said the administration was focused on due to their high trade surpluses with the U.S”.
Reuters/Olusola Akintonde
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