President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he will impose 10% tariffs on all imports to the United States, in addition to higher tariffs on some of the country’s largest trading partners, intensifying the trade war that began after his return to the White House.
– “This is our declaration of independence,” Trump said at an event in the White House garden.
He displayed a poster listing reciprocal tariffs, including those of 34% for China and 20% for the European Union, in response to their tariffs on American goods.
Other details remain unclear as Trump continued to reiterate earlier criticisms that global trade harms American workers and companies. The Trump administration announced that the new tariffs would take effect immediately after the president’s announcement, but has not yet presented an official document to initiate their implementation.
However, it announced that a special set of tariffs on automobile imports, which Trump announced last week, will take effect on April 3. Trump has already imposed tariffs of 20% on all imports from China and 25% on steel and aluminum imports, extending them to products made from those materials worth nearly $150 billion.
His advisors claim that the tariffs will bring strategically important manufacturing capacities back to the United States. Other economists, however, warn that the tariffs could slow down the global economy, increase the risk of recession, and raise living costs for the average American family by thousands of dollars.
