It is final – the United States will impose “reciprocal tariffs” globally, with Europe among those most agitated by the move.
The White House said that the imposition of reciprocal tariffs on nations as a major milestone in US history.
“Tomorrow, April 2, 2025, will go down as one of the most important days in modern American history,” spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
“Our country has been one of the most open economies in the world, and we have the consumer base, hands down the best consumer base, but too many foreign countries have their markets closed to our exports. This is fundamentally unfair,” she added.
The White House said that the import duties will be “effective immediately” after Trump’s announcement on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila).
For her part, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday issued a stern warning to the US over its escalating trade tariffs.
“We do not necessarily want to retaliate, but we have a strong plan to retaliate if necessary,” von der Leyen said at the European Parliament Plenary debate.
Von der Leyen stressed that across-the-board tariffs would only worsen the situation by driving up costs, fueling inflation, and creating bureaucratic burdens for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.
Analysts are also not optimistic on the outcome of the move the US to impose tariffs, which are expected to hit cars, luxury goods, and food items, among many others.
“I can’t recall a situation where the stakes were this high and yet the outcome was so unpredictable,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers as quoted by Reuters. “The devil is going to be in the details and nobody knows the details.”
“You cannot make important decisions on your supply chain when the rules of the game keep changing,” said Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight pricing platform Xeneta.
