Laptops from Taiwan, Italian wine, frozen shrimp from India, Nike sneakers from Vietnam and Irish butter.
These products are found in homes across the United States, demonstrating the United States’ enduring role as a champion of free trade and its most profitable market for commodities around the world.
Now, after President Trump on Wednesday, after all U.S. trading partners imposed universal tariffs on additional duties on 60 countries, they now imposed universal tariffs on additional tax rates in 60 countries, who they believe that unfair trade practices are “the most serious criminals.”
Mr. Trump imposes a 10% basic responsibility on all goods imported into the United States compared to decades of trade policy. In addition, so-called mutual tariffs will be charged to other countries at higher tax rates next week.
The White House imposes 20% and 34% tariffs on the EU and China, the two largest trading partners of the United States. Mr. Trump's previous additional expropriation on China would increase by 20%.
Even closed allies such as Japan and South Korea were not spared. Countries like Australia and Brazil are not buying much from the United States, not the countries they sell.
Mr. Trump called the news a “liberation day” in the United States, launching a wave of shocks around the world and triggering the ghost of a global trade war. Stock markets went bankrupt because investors were surprised by the size and scope of tariffs.
In less than three months, Mr. Trump announced tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China as well as import duties on steel, aluminum, automobiles and auto parts. Wednesday's executive order includes exemptions to semiconductors, medicines and wood. But analysts believe that these are not suffered. They are products that are close to their goals.
Allies and opponents are scrambling to understand Mr. Trump’s tariff violations, which has raised the U.S. import duties to the highest level in more than a century, showing no signs of surrender. Some people threaten to retaliate. Others openly promote negotiations, while others quietly push for concessions through the post channel.
China accused the United States of “unilateral bullying” and promised to adopt “solid countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests.” South Korea convened an emergency working group and vowed to “dump all government resources to overcome the trade crisis.” In Brazil, the presidential government of Luiz Inácio Da Silva said it was assessing retaliation measures.
In a speech early Thursday morning, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the global economy would “suffer huge losses from tariffs.” While urging negotiations, she said the group is preparing further countermeasures besides retaliatory tariffs that have been prepared for foreign steel and aluminum.
Mr. Trump's plan has been hit particularly hard. Vietnam was the beneficiary of companies that moved production from China during Trump's first president, levied a 46% tax. Import tariffs for Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia all exceed 30%. The White House imposed a 26% tariff on Indian imports.
For decades, exports have been avenue of economic prosperity for developing Asian countries, emerging from conflict, crisis or poverty. The latest tariffs punish countries like Taiwan and Japan that modernize economies through trade, which also keep the prospects of poor countries such as Cambodia and Bangladesh still bleak and still hope to follow that route.
Cambodia is a clothing and footwear producer, hit by 49% tariffs. The United States is the country's largest export market.
“As a small country, we just want to survive,” said Sok Eysan, spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People's Party of Cambodia.
Mr. Trump blamed selling cheap goods from these countries to hollow out the U.S. manufacturing industry. But they also help keep inflation down, thus lowering prices for American consumers.
Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South Program at Quincy Responsibility Division in Washington, D.C., said tariffs will hit several developing countries the most, while encouraging much of the world to move faster without a U.S. center without a U.S. center.
“In terms of trade, we are in a multipolar world and there are alternative markets, though of course there will be pain and transaction costs in diversification,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country would not respond with retaliatory tariffs, pledging Australia would not “join the competition, which would lead to higher prices and lower growth rates”.
In Japan, officials and trade experts were caught off guard by the scale of the new tariffs the country faced – 24%. This is especially shocking given that Japan's average tariffs on non-agricultural products are the lowest in the world. Japan called the tariffs “very regrettable” and vowed to continue seeking exemptions.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has pledged to increase Japanese investment to about $1 trillion, focusing on buying more U.S. products, such as liquefied natural gas.
Before the announcement of the latest tariffs, Takeshi Niinami, CEO of Japanese beverage giant Suntory Holdings, said he believes the tariffs could be negotiated because Japan is the largest foreign investor in the United States.
“There could be a mess,” he said. “But in the end, things will be stable.”
Data analytics firm Exiger calculated that Trump's announcement would result in $600 billion in new U.S. tariffs each year. Most of the taxes will come from 10 countries, with China's exports accounting for a quarter of the additional tariffs at $149 billion. Vietnamese goods will face tariffs of $63 billion, Taiwanese products of $37 billion, and Japanese exports of $36 billion. The combined German and Irish goods will face an additional tax of $41 billion.
During Trump's first presidency, tech companies moved some production to Vietnam to prevent a trade war with China. One-third of Vietnam's exports are now electronics.
Apple has moved the manufacturing of Airpod, watches and iPads to Vietnam over the past few years. Relying solely on Chinese factories for years, it has also shifted some iPhone production to India.
South Korean conglomerate Samsung Electronics has invested more than $20 billion in Vietnam since it started opening its factories nearly two decades ago. Now, it produces more goods in Vietnam than in China. Last year, it produced about $70 billion in goods at its Vietnam factory, most of which were used for export.
Mr. Trump's policies also complicate decisions on smaller American businesses. Brenden McMorrow, co-founder of Toymaker Move2play in Toymaker, California, said the company has made all its products in China about nine years ago. But it began to consider factories in Vietnam or India to prevent Chinese import tariffs.
In Vietnam, it found that Chinese companies operate factories using Chinese materials are not much cheaper. Instead, it decided to try to test a toy made in India – a decision that said it was better for the high tariffs imposed by Vietnam. It looked at whether it could be made in the United States, but he said the cost is about five times that of China.
Despite the higher cost of tariffs, he is not seeing U.S. production as more feasible now.
“I think if the next president comes in and reverses the course of all these tariffs, then it really doesn’t make sense to invest in trying to do a lot of manufacturing in the U.S., then you’re in a horrible place,” he said. “It makes more sense just by insisting that we are making moves that are currently manufacturing rather than making big risk.”
Damian Cave,,,,, Jack Nicas,,,,, Victoria Kim,,,,, Alex Travelli,,,,, Cui Sang,,,,, Sui-Lee Wee and David Pierson Contribution report.
