President Donald Trump began levying higher import taxes on goods from nearly 100 other nations on Thursday, just as the economic fallout of his monthslong tariff threats begins to create visible damage to the U.S. economy. These taxes, reaching a level not seen in the U.S. in almost 100 years, will have Americans paying an average of 18.3% more for imported products, the highest rate since 1934, according to the Budget Lab at Yale, a nonpartisan policy research center.
Despite the immediate impact, the Trump White House is confident businesses will ramp up new investments and jump-start hiring in ways that can rebalance the U.S. economy as a manufacturing power.
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World stock markets mostly climb
Market reaction to Trump’s tariffs has been scant. In early European trading, Germany’s DAX rose 0.9% to 24,137.51. In Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.8% to 7,693.36, while Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.3% to 9,138.96.
The future for Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%, and S&P 500 edged 0.5% higher. In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.7% to 41,059.15.
More than 60 countries and the European Union face tariff rates of 10% or higher
Products from the EU, Japan and South Korea are taxed at 15%, while imports from Taiwan, Vietnam and Bangladesh are taxed at 20%. Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to place an additional 25% tariff on India for its purchases of Russian oil, bringing the combined tariffs imposed by the United States on its ally to 50%, to go into effect later this month.
Trump has used tariff threats to exert political pressure
Trump has directly tied Brazil’s 50% tariff on many imported goods to the trial of his embattled ally, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest. And the White House has placed the tariff rate on U.S. imports from Canada at 35%, saying Canada had failed to “do more to arrest, seize, detain or otherwise intercept … traffickers, criminals at large, and illicit drugs.”
Trump says he will change the Census counts to exclude immigrants in the US illegally
Trump posted on Truth Social that he has “instructed” the Commerce Department to change the way the Census Bureau operates.
The president says it will be based on “modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” an indication that he might try to inject his politics into survey work that measures everything from child poverty to business operations.
Trump stressed that as part of the changes, people in “our Country illegally” will be excluded from Census counts.
Tariffs to affect more than half of Indian exports to the US
American consumers and businesses buy pharmaceutical drugs, precious stones, and textiles and apparel from India, among other goods. The U.S. ran a $45.8 billion trade deficit in goods with India last year, meaning America imported more from India than it exported, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
A top body of Indian exporters said Thursday the latest U.S. tariffs will impact nearly 55% of the country’s outbound shipments to America and lead to exporters losing long-standing clients.
“Absorbing this sudden cost escalation is simply not viable. Margins are already thin,” S.C. Ralhan, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said in a statement.
Trump move
Trump to discuss vaccines Thursday, talks up Operation Warp Speed against COVID
The president was asked about his top health official, Robert Kennedy Jr., announcing plans to pull $500 million in vaccine development and said he plans a meeting to discuss vaccines.
“We’re gonna look at that. We’re talking about it,” Trump said of the funding cuts.
He also praised his first-term effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Operation Warp Speed. He said that push was “considered one of the most incredible things ever done in this country, but added, “That was now a long time ago. And we’re on to other things.”
Trump said of Thursday’s planned meeting: “We’re looking for other answers to other problems, to other sicknesses and diseases.”
Trump says he plans to put a 100% tariff on computer chips
The president said Wednesday that he will impose a 100% tariff on computer chips, likely raising the cost of electronics, autos, household appliances and other goods deemed essential for the digital age.
Trump said companies that make computer chips in the U.S. would be spared the import tax.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of computer chips increased the price of autos and contributed to an uptick in overall inflation.
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