Trump tariffs pile stress on ailing world

Moves 'risk ending global free trade'

- MARK JOHN FRANCESCO CANEPA LEIKA KIHARA

The latest round of US tariffs unveiled on Wednesday will sap a fragile recovery from a world economy barely recovered from the post-pandemic inflation surge, weighed down by record debt and unnerved by geopolitical strife.

Depending on how President Donald Trump and leaders of other nations proceed now, it may also go down as a turning point for a globalised system that until now had taken for granted the strength and reliability of America, its biggest component.

“Trump’s tariffs carry the risk of destroying the global free trade order the United States itself has spear-headed since the Second World War,” said Takatoshi Ito, Executive econ-omist at Nomura Research Institute.

But in coming months it will be the plain and simple price-hiking — and therefore demand-dampening — effects of new levies applied to thou-sands of goods bought and sold by consumers and businesses across the planet that will prevail.

“I see it as a drift of the US and global economies toward worse performance, more uncertainty and possibly head-ing towards something we could call a global recession,” said Antonio Fatas, macroeconomist at the Insead business school in France.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said he would impose a 10% baseline tariff on all imports and held up a chart showing higher duties on some of the coming targeted trading partners, including 34% on China and 20% on the European Union.

A 25% auto and auto parts tariff was confirmed earlier. Trump said the tariffs would return strategically vital manufacturing capabilities to the United States.

Under the new global levies imposed by Trump, US tariffs rate on all imports jumped to 2.2% — a rate last seen around 2004 — from just 1.5% in 2023, said Citi-Soros, head of US eco-nomic research at JtSG.