‘Worst offenders’ around world face import taxes up to 50%

President Donald Trump has unveiled plans for sweeping new import taxes on all goods entering the US, in the biggest upheaval of the international trade order since the aftermath of World War Two.

His plan sets a baseline tariff on all imports of at least 10%, consistent with a proposal he made on the campaign last year.

Items from countries that the White House described as the “worst offenders”, including the European Union and China, face higher rates for what Trump said was payback due to unfair trade policies.

Analysts said the escalation of Trump’s trade war was likely to lead to higher prices for Americans and slower growth in the US, while some countries around the world could be plunged into recession.

But in Wednesday’s announcement at the White House, Trump said the gambit was necessary because he argued countries were taking advantage of the US by imposing high tariffs and other trade barriers.

“He just dropped a nuclear bomb on the global trading system,” Ken Roggoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, told the BBC.

The White House said the US would start charging the 10% tariffs on 5 April, with the higher duties for certain nations starting on 9 April.

“It’s our declaration of economic independence,” Trump said in the Rose Garden against a backdrop of US flags.

Declaring a national emergency, the Republican president said the US had for more than five decades been “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike”.

“Today we are standing up for the American worker and we are finally putting America first,” he said, calling it “one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history”.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump called for new tariffs that he said would raise revenue for the government and boost manufacturing, promising a new age of US prosperity.

He has spent weeks previewing Wednesday’s announcement, which follows other orders raising tariffs on imports from China, foreign cars, steel and aluminium and 25% on some goods from Mexico and Canada.

The White House said the latest changes would not change anything for Mexico and Canada, two of America’s closest trading partners.

But other allies will face new tariffs, including 10% for the UK and 20% for the European Union, said Trump.

Tariffs on goods from China will jump a further 34%, adding to an existing 20% levy, while it will be 24% for Japan, and 26% on India.

Some of the highest rates will be levied on smaller countries, with goods from the southern African nation of Lesotho facing 50%, while Vietnam and Cambodia will be hit with 46% and 49% respectively.

The latter two have both seen a rush of investment in recent years, as firms shifted supply chains away from China following Trump’s first term.

Together the moves will affect trillions of dollars in trade, potentially setting the stage for higher American prices on clothing, European wine, bicycles, toys and thousands of other items.

Olu Sonola, head of US economic research at the Fitch Ratings agency, estimated that the measures would bring the US tariff rate to what was in place in 1910.

“This is a game-changer, not only for the US economy but for the global economy,” he said.

“Many countries will likely end up in a recession.”

The baseline tariffs will apply to more than 100 countries, according to a White House fact sheet, of which some 60 will face a higher rate.

Trump has described those measures as “reciprocal” – intending them as a retaliation against existing policies that he says fuel high trade imbalances.

These include Value Added Tax (VAT) or regulations that bar foods with traces of certain chemicals.

On Wednesday, Trump also signed an order ending tax-free treatment for small packages from China as of May, a move that would hurt Amazon rivals such as Shein and Temu.

He confirmed that a 25% tax on imports of all foreign-made cars, which he announced last week, would begin from midnight.

And he repeated his plans to hit specific items that were exempt from Wednesday’s action, such as copper and pharmaceuticals, with separate tariffs.

The stock market was closed for trading when Trump made his announcement, which he branded “Liberation Day”.

But in after-market trading shares sank sharply.

Apple, which relies heavily on China and on Taiwan, which is facing new US tariffs of 32%, sank more than 7%.

Amazon was down more than 6%, while shares in Walmart dropped more than 4%. Nike dropped more than 6%.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives described the measures as “worse than the worst case”.

But he said he believed there would be negotiations and exemptions.

Trump has dismissed concerns about how the tariffs will affect the US economy.

But the move is likely to prove a political test for the administration, which was elected in part on promises to tame prices.

Opinion surveys indicate that many Americans do not believe tariffs will help the economy, as Trump argues.

About 48% of Republicans told a recent Marquette Law School Poll that they shared those concerns.

Gustavo Flores-Macias, professor of government and public policy at Cornell University, said: “The promise of generating manufacturing jobs in the US is not going to be immediate – if it materialises.

“The increase in prices is likely to materialise very quickly.”

He said Trump’s announcement meant that the international trade system, which the US helped to create after World War Two, was “unravelling”.