President Donald Trump has unveiled plans for sweeping new import taxes on all goods entering the US, in a watershed moment for global trade.
The plan sets a baseline tariff on all imports of at least 10%, consistent with a proposal Trump made on the campaign last year.
Items from countries that the White House described as the “worst offenders”, including the European Union, China, Vietnam and Lesotho, would face far higher rates for what the White House described as payback for unfair trade policies.
Trump’s move breaks with decades of American policy embracing free trade, and analysts said it was likely to lead to higher prices in the US and slower growth in the US and around the world.
The White House said officials would start charging the 10% tariffs on 5 April, with the higher duties starting on 9 April.
“It’s our declaration of economic independence,” Trump said in the White House Rose Garden against a backdrop of US flags.
The Republican president said the US had been “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike”.
Some of the tariffs would be reciprocal, he said.
“Reciprocal – that means they do it to us, and we do it to them,” he said. “This is 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 money for the government and boost manufacturing, promising a new age of American 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 some goods from Mexico and Canada, two of America’s closest trading partners.
The White House said the latest changes would not apply to Mexico and Canada.
Goods from the UK are set to face a new 10% tariff, while import taxes on items from the European Union would go to 20%, Japan to 24% and 26% on India.
Some of the highest rate will be charged 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.
Trump also confirmed that a 25% tax on imports of all foreign-made cars, which he announced last week, would begin from midnight.
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