Donald Trump sent shockwaves around the world during his Liberation Day speech when he read out new tariffs with the help of a giant cardboard list.
Running through the list, he referred to America's trading partners and the burden he says they put on the U.S.
""European Union, they're very tough. Very very tough traders. You know, you think of European Union -- very friendly. They rip us off. It's so sad to see. It's so pathetic. 39 percent. We're gonna charge them 20 percent. So we're charging them essentially half. Vietnam -- great negotiators." Trump said in one moment, as numbers rolled off his tongue.
Trump said they will add a base tariff of 10%, saying, "We will establish a minimum baseline tariff of 10 percent. That'll be on other countries to help rebuild our economy."
Some countries on the list
The reciprocal tariff levels Trump announced:
- China: 34%
- European Union: 20%
- South Korea: 25%
- India: 26%
- Vietnam: 46%
- Taiwan: 32%
- Japan: 24%
- Thailand: 36%
- Switzerland: 31%
- Indonesia: 32%
- Malaysia: 24%
- Cambodia: 49%
- United Kingdom: 10%
- Colombia: 10%
- South Africa: 30%
- Brazil: 10%
- Bangladesh: 37%
- Singapore: 10%
- Israel: 17%
- Chile: 10%
- Philippines: 17%
- Australia: 10%
- Pakistan: 29%
- Turkey: 10%
- Sri Lanka: 44%
- Peru: 10%
- Nicaragua: 18%
- Norway: 15%
- Costa Rica: 10%
- Jordan: 20%
- Dominican Republic: 10%
- United Arab Emirates: 10:
- New Zealand: 10%
- Argentina: 10%
- Ecuador: 10%
- Guatemala: 10%
- Honduras: 10%
- Madagascar: 47%
- Myanmar: 44%
- Tunisia: 28%
- Kazakhstan: 27%
- Sewrbia: 37%
- Egypt: 10%
- Saudi Arabia: 10%
- El Salvador: 10%
- Core d'Ivorie: 21%
- Laos: 48%
- Botswana: 37%
- Trinidad and Tobago: 10%
- Morocco: 10%
What else did Trump say?
He claimed that tariffs were extremely beneficial to the nation previously.
"From 1789 to 1913, we were a tariff-backed nation and the US was proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been," Trump said.
In his 'Make America Wealthy Again' speech in the Rose Garden at the White House at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Trump laid bare what the tariff plans look like, information that economists, finance experts, consumers, and business owners, both domestic and worldwide, have waited for with bated breath.
According to Trump, Wednesday is ‘Liberation Day’ for Americans. However, the American businesses, financial markets, and economic experts were far from convinced with the stock market being particularly volatile.
Ahead of the announcement, Anne Villamil, Henry B. Tippie Research Fellow in Economics at Iowa University, sounded alarms over the potential impacts of the uncertainty surrounding the tariffs on the economy.
"My greatest concern has been the uncertainty and the continued uncertainty,” Villamil told Mirror US, adding that this is ultimately hurting consumers and firms.
“If consumers don’t know what’s happening, they’re going to cut back on their consumption. And that’s a huge part of GDP,” Villamil added.
While Trump is looking to boost US manufacturing and punish other countries for, what he claims, years of unfair trading practices, experts are alarmed over the potential impacts, including a plummeting stock market, high prices, and deglobalization.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Wednesday that Trump's new tariffs will ultimately drive the US into a recession.
“This is not Liberation Day,” Jeffries, a Democrat, said. “It’s Recession Day in the United States of America.”
“That’s what the Trump tariffs are going to do: Crash the economy, which has been happening since January 20 of this year,” he continued.
Villamil explained. While the lack of confidence among consumers and businesses in investing in the economy may trigger a recession, the United States is currently not in recession, Villamil said.
However, the growing concerns over the economy softening continue to be a major issue, she said.
As the country hurtles towards de-globalization under Trump, it may lead to slower growth, ultimately resulting in stagflation.
A lower growth or stagnation in the economy coupled with tariff-induced inflation is quite detrimental, she said.
“Stagflation is very painful. It’s the worst of slow growth and inflation, and it led people to be very unhappy,” she said, referring the the 1980s when unemployment was over 7.5% with a 14.5% inflation rate.