Trump has imposed 'steepest, harshest tariffs in a century'

"US President Trump has imposed the steepest and harshest American tariffs in a century on all its major counterparts, sparking threats of retaliation and a broad selloff around the world on concerns that a global trade war on this scale and magnitude will drive an economic slowdown - not least in the US, where inflation forecasts have spiked, and sentiment among consumers and businesses has fallen sharply during the past couple of months."

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This was stated by Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy, Saxo Bank, during an exclusive interview with Gulf Today.

"There is a general understanding of why Trump wants to reshape the global economy, with his primary goal being the reversal of a two-decade trend of US companies moving production overseas to capitalise on cheaper labour costs, which, in turn, has boosted their stock prices but contributed to domestic job losses and economic stagnation in certain sectors and parts of the nation," Ole added.

"What Trump delivered on this so-called "Liberation Day" was an economic war declaration likely to cause chaos across global supply chains, while in the short term raising the risk of an economic fallout, hurting demand for key commodities, with energy and industrial metals being the sectors most at risk. Financial markets responded strongly to the tariff announcement, with the USD, equity markets, and US Treasury yields all seeing sharp declines."

Wall Street futures sank as investors shed riskier assets in favour of safe-haven bonds and gold.

UK DRAWS UP OVER 400-PAGE LIST OF US GOODS THAT COULD BE SLAPPED WITH IMPORT TAXES: