United States President Donald Trump has unveiled his long-anticipated “reciprocal tariffs”, in a move that is expected to rattle global trade relations.
On Wednesday, Trump appeared in the White House Rose Garden, where the colonnades had been draped with large US flags, to sign the executive orders authorising the tariffs.
He framed the tax hikes as a blow against unfair trade practices, painting a portrait of the US as a country exploited by even its closest allies.
“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” Trump told an audience of manufacturing workers, cabinet members and journalists.
“ Foreign leaders have stolen our jobs. Foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories. And foreign scavengers have torn apart our once-beautiful American dream.”
But he proclaimed that Wednesday would mark a turning point in US history, marking an end to the “vicious attacks” he said the country had weathered.
“ April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed,” Trump said.
Invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, Trump announced a 10-percent tariff on all countries, scheduled to take effect on April 5.
Then, he revealed there would be “individualised” tariffs for countries with that have the largest trade deficits with the US. Those tariffs would come into effect four days later, on April 9.
Trump explained that his team calculated the “individualised” tariffs by taking half of what he claimed those countries had charged the US for its exports.
“ We will charge them approximately half of what they are — and have — been charging us. So the tariffs will be not full reciprocal,” Trump said. “I could have done that I guess, but it would’ve been tough for a lot of countries. We didn’t want to do that.”
He then beckoned Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to the Rose Garden podium with an chart that illustrated some of the upcoming tariffs.
The graph showed the European Union was headed for 20-percent tariffs. China, meanwhile, had been assigned 34 percent. Vietnam would receive 46 percent, and Thailand 36 percent.
Noticeably absent were Mexico and Canada, the US’s two largest trading partners and its immediate neighbours.
Those countries, the White House explained, would remain under punitive tariffs, designed to bring them in line with Trump’s policies on border security.
All goods not covered under the US-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement would face a 25-percent tariff, with the exception of energy products. They face 10-percent tariffs instead.
Wednesday’s announcement, while widely expected, still sent shockwaves across the globe.
“Long story short, this is a historic moment,” said Dan Ciuriak, the director of the Canada-based Ciuriak Consulting firm, giving a nod to the isolationist policies of the Trump administration.
“I think it will reshape the world. I think we are seeing the possibility of the emergence of something like a ‘Fortress North America’.”
He noted that poorer countries in places like southeast Asia appear to be among the hardest hit by the impending tariffs.
“ The developing countries have been hit by very, very high tariffs. And that will have geopolitical ramifications,” Ciuriak said.
“These countries are the poorest in the world, and the notion that they have been getting rich on the back of American workers is not very tenable. I don’t think that this is going to play well in the rest of the world. So we will see, I think, tectonic shifts in international relations as a result of that.”
Within minutes of Trump’s announcement, the international backlash started to erupt, with world leaders denouncing the sweeping tariffs as unjustified.
“The unilateral action that the Trump administration has taken today against every nation in the world does not come as a surprise,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a news conference. “But let me be clear: They are totally unwarranted.”
Australia faces 10-percent tariffs from the Trump administration. Like many leaders, Albanese pledged to protect his country’s workers from the repercussions of those taxes.
“The administration’s tariffs have no basis in logic, and they go against the basis of our two nations’ partnership. This is not the act of a friend,” he added.
Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheal Martin, meanwhile, offered a broad message warning of the damage to both global trade relations and to the US’s own consumers.
“I strongly beleive that tariffs benefit no one. They’re bad for the world economy. They hurt people. They hurt businesses,” he said. “So I regret deeply the decision of the US administration this evening to levy a tariff of 20 percent on all goods imported from the European Union.”
Even Canada, which was exempt from the so-called reciprocal tariffs, chimed in with its outrage over the US’s broader policy of lashing out at longtime trading partners.
“During this crisis, we must act with purpose and force,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on social media. “My government will fight U.S. tariffs, protect Canadian workers and industries, and build the strongest economy in the G7.”
Canada is among the countries that has pledged to respond to the Trump administration’s tariffs with retaliatory measures. Other countries, including Mexico, have demurred: Earlier on Wednesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would avoid pursuing “tit-for-tat” tariffs.
Experts say tariffs — a kind of import taxes — very often fall on the shoulders of consumers.
Trump has framed his tariffs as a means of reducing trade deficits and bringing foreign manufacturing back to US shores. He also said he plans to use the tariffs to offset the US debt and pave the way for tax cuts.
But critics point out that trade deficits — when the money spent on exports is greater than earnings from imports — are not necessarily a bad thing. They can a sign of consumer habits or a strong currency.
Opponents of the tariffs also argue that it will take years for new factories to be established in the US, making any economic benefit a distant prospect.
Reporting from the New York Stock Exchange, Al Jazeera correspondent Kristen Saloomey noted that market volatility has been an issue for investors this week, as they braced for the tariffs and the resulting economic uncertainty.
“President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement came after stock markets in the United States had closed in positive territory and immediately sent the futures market into negative territory, signalling another shaky start to the markets on Thursday,” Saloomey said.
What might follow Trump’s announcement, she added, is unclear. Economists have been watching stock market indexes like the S&P500 for signs of what’s to come.
“Market analysts have been disagreeing as to whether or not we’ve seen the worst of this policy’s impact on markets,” Saloomey explained.
“Some have argued that — with a 10-percent drop in the S&P last month — markets had already priced in the cost of doing business with these tariffs. Others have warned that things might get worse with inflation and even a recession possible in the future as a result of these policies.”
But Trump and his allies have brushed aside fears of an economic downturn. From the Rose Garden, Trump offered a preemptive rebuttal to the foreign leaders who might “complain”.
“To all of the foreign presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, ambassadors and everyone else who will soon be calling to ask for exemptions from these tariffs, I say: Terminate your own tariffs. Drop your barriers. Don’t manipulate your currencies,” Trump said.
He also signalled he felt the tariffs were relatively generous, given the abuse he felt the US had faced.
“We are being very kind. We’re kind people, very kind,” he said, before adding: “You are not so kind when you get ripped off.”
