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UN report: Trump urged to drop tariffs for poorest countries
The Guardian
|April 15, 2025
The UN's trade and development arm, Unctad, is calling on Donald Trump to exempt the world's poorest and smallest countries from "reciprocal" tariffs, or risk causing them "serious economic harm".
In a report published yesterday, Unctad identifies 28 nations the US president singled out for a higher tariff rate than the 10% baseline - despite each accounting for less than 0.1% of the US trade deficit.
These include Laos, which is expected to face a 48% tariff; Mauritius, on 40%; and Myanmar, to be hit with 45%, despite trying to recover from a devastating earthquake.
The US shocked many developing countries with the punitive tariff rates. Trump claimed rival economies had "looted, pillaged, raped, plundered" the US with unfair trade practices. Unctad said many of the countries targeted were unlikely to be a threat to the world's largest economy, given their modest exports.
This story is from the April 15, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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