AsianFin -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday floated 15% or 20% blanket tariffs on most trading partners after announcing levies on nearly two dozen countries.
Credit：China Central Television
“We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it’s 20% or 15%. We’ll work that out now,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. Blanket tariffs are currently set at 10% as Trump on April 9 said that he has authorized a 90-day pause and “a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff” of 10% during this period, and on Monday signed an executive order to delay the tariff deadline to August 1.
Trump in the interview on Thursday brushed off concerns over higher inflation and the stock market shock due to further tariffs.
“I think the tariffs have been very well-received. The stock market hit a new high today,” he said. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite index closed at their new records, edging up 0.27% and 0.09%, respectively, showcasing investors continued to shrug off tariff worries.
Trump on Thursday also revealed a letter informing he would impose a 35% tariff on all Canadian imports starting August 1, escalating trade tensions. Earlier this week, the president has sent letters to leaders of 22 countries dictating new tariffs set to begin on August 1.
Trump on Monday disclosed tariffs on 14 countries in a series of social media posts. From his shared screenshots of form letters to the leaders of these countries, Trump dictated 25% tariffs on all the imports from Japan, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Tunisia, 30% tariffs on imports from South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina, 32% tariffs on Indonesia, 35% tariffs on Bangladesh and Serbia, 36% tariffs on Thailand and Cambodia, 40% tariffs on Laos and Myanmar.
Trump in the letters issued similar threat that transshipping goods will be high hit with higher tariffs, and the aforementioned countries, if later decide to slap the U.S. with higher tariffs ,will face extra tariffs with the same level they will impose on top of the new tariff rates effective on August 1. And the president added companies in these countries will be granted exemptions if they decide to make products in the United States.
Trump on Wednesday first posted letters to the leaders of seven countries on his social media platform Truth Social, informing all the goods imported from the Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Iraq, Libya and Sri Lanka will face tariffs ranging from 20% to 30%, effective August 1.
Trump assigned Libya, Iraq, Algeria and Sri Lanka each a tariff rate of 30% tariffs, Brunei and Moldova were assigned tariff rates of 25%, and a 20% tariff will be imposed on the Philippines, according to the letters.
Many of the abovementioned tariff rates were slightly lower than those Trump announced on April 2, a date the president proclaimed “Liberation Day”, or unchanged. Malaysia’s was 1 percentage point higher, while Cambodia appeared as the big winner, with a rate of reciprocal tariff down 13 percentage points from the previous target.
Later Wednesday, Trump announced new reciprocal tariffs of 50% on all Brazilian imports, also starting on August 1. Brazil became the big loser as the tariff rate of 50% it now faces is the highest so far announced of the levies which are poised to begin in August, and the rate suggested a massive jump from the 10% tariffs the Trump administration imposed in early April.
