At the beginning of this week, US President Donald Trump announced a number of tariffs that aim to deal with what he described as a trade power and strengthening the American industry.
Declared on April 2 as “exemption day” – the “explanation of the economic independence” of the country – to “make America wealthy again” by implementing “mutual tariffs”. This includes a universal tariff of 10% for all imports with higher interest rates for 57 countries based on their trade surpluses at the USA.
“American steel workers, car pork, farmers and experienced craftsmen (…) suffered hard,” said Trump. “They saw in fear of how foreign leaders stole our work, foreign fraudsters searched our factories and foreign aas -eater have torn apart our once moving American dream.”
Trump insisted that the United States had been “torn down” for more than 50 years, but swore that it “no longer happened”. While the government argues that these tariffs restore the trade balance and strengthen the US middle class, economists have warned of a potential US and global recession. After the announcement, the global stock markets fell and triggered the outrage among the leaders of the world.
International reaction
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, reacted to a tariff of 20% to EU imports, admitted that “other unfair advantages for current trade rules.
However, she expressed the willingness to negotiate reforms, warned that if discussions with the USA failed with the United States, countermeasures to protect the key industries, including the German auto sector, the Italian luxury goods market and the France wine exports, would impose opposite allegations.
The British Prime Minister Keir Starrer, who spoke from Downing Street, admitted that the tariffs would violate the economy, but promised to react calmly in the coming weeks.
“Last night the President of the United States acted for his country, and that is his mandate. Today I will act with myself in the interests of Britain,” he said.
Canada, which Trump has repeatedly referred to as the “51st state of the USA”, has confronted A tariff of 25% for most goods and a tariff of 10% for energy products since February. In response to this, Canada imposed 25% tariffs to US goods worth $ 155 billion.
The trade dispute continued to escalate when Trump announced a tariff of 25% on auto imports, which prompted the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney to impose retaliation duties that aim at US vehicles that do not comply with the North American trade agreement.
“Every single dollar, which is recorded by these counter-tariffs-will go directly to our car workers and the affected companies,” said Carney.
China also provided the promise of “determined countermeasures”, which imposed a tariff of 34% on all US imports that are valid on April 10th.
“The aim of these measures is to protect national security and to meet international obligations, including non -distribution,” said the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
The markets reacted strongly, whereby the large US indices fell by almost 3% and the European markets were around 4%, with some companies recording double-digit declines.
“China played it wrong, they panic – the only thing they can’t afford!” Trump wrote about the social truth.
Other global reactions
Morocco receive A basic tariff of 10%that reflects his own tariffs for US imports. Mohammed Benhammou, an international security expert, described Trump’s trade policy “the beginning of the end of globalization and free trade” and argued that they would rather hinder the industrial growth of the United States.
In the meantime, the Moroccos Justice and Development Party (PJD) applied for a meeting of the parliamentary committee with industry and Minister of Commerce Ryad Mezzour to be assessed The possible disorders of the delivery of chains and exports.
The only nations that were spared from the tariffs were Cuba, Belarus, North Korea and Russia. An official from the White House informed the Anadolu agency that these countries were excluded because they were already exposed to difficult US sanctions.
“Our previously imposed measures exclude any significant trade in these countries,” said the official.
Unintentional strange mistake
In the middle of waves of global panic and unbelief, many humor at Trump, the incorrectly tariffs on abandoned Australian islands hard and McDonald Islands, who are only accessible by a seven-day boat trip from the Australian city of Perth and have not been visited by humans for almost a decade.
“Poor old penguins, I don’t know what you have done with Trump, but see, I think it’s a hint to be honest that this was a rushed process,” said Australian Minister of Commerce Don Farrell.
Memes of the Flugless Bird quickly flooded the social media with a widespread meme that shows a penguin who replaced the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in his last meeting with Trump and the US Vice President JD Vance, where he was insulted because of “gambling with the Second World War”.
“The penguins have torn us off for years,” joked Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly acted as a communication director of the White House during Trump’s first term.
Apart from jokes, the concerns that weigh Americans and the global community are serious. When large trading partners enter into retaliation, the coming months will show whether the brazen tariffs would really revive the “American dream” or move the whole world to a trade war.
