He 10% global tariff announced this week by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has entered into force this Saturday. The measure, which could generate new turbulence in international markets, imposes new levies to products from 184 countries and territories, as well as the European Union.
The announcement occurred on April 2, during a day that Trump described as “the day of liberation.” In addition to the 10% general tax, the White House established specific increases: up to 20% for European products and 34% for imports from China.
That additional tariff climb applied only to some Washington commercial partners will enter into force at 00:01 local time of the east of the USA (04:01 GMT) of April 9. What enters into force from this moment is the 10% global tariff that affects all the products that the United States imports from other nations.
Certain exceptions
However, Those products that were already loaded in a ship to the United States Before 00:01 local time of eastern US (04:01 GMT) this Saturday, according to the executive order Trump signed on Wednesday to implement these measures.
Fear of an economic recession
That exception – the only one that collects the order – prevents the goods that are already on their way to the United States to be affected by the change in customs. Tariffs imposed by Trump are a threat to the foundations of free trade that have defined the world for decades and have already unleashed a commercial war with traditional Washington allies, such as Canada, and adversaries such as China, which has announced their own taxes.
Tariffs have also fueled the fear of economic slowdown, With the largest bank in the US, JPMorgan Chase, raising the possibilities of a global recession from 40% to 60%. Within the US, the president of the Federal Reserve (FED), Jerome Powell, warned Friday that Trump’s tariffs could translate into greater inflation and less economic growth, and warned that the highest inflation could be persistent and not temporary.
Tariffs also threaten to more expensive goods such as homes, cars and clothing within the US, especially harming the poorest families in the country, which could experience a capital drop up to 5.5%according to a study by a research center at Yale University. Trump imposed tariffs by resorting to the additional authority that has as president to declare a “national emergency”, something that he argued that the current commercial situation implies a risk to the security of the United States.
The president has promised that tariffs will make The jobs that moved to countries with cheapest labor return to the US In recent decades; But, in recent weeks, he has also recognized that there could be a period of painful “transition” for American families.
The last time the US tariffs were so high was after President Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) promulgated the controversial Smoot-Hawley tariff law in 1930, which raised tariffs on many products imported to almost 40%. To this measure it is attributed to having worsened the Great Depressionalso known as the crisis of 1929, which lasted until the years prior to World War II.
