Trump’s tariffs on China, EU and more, at a glance

Perspective

Trump’s tariffs on China, EU and more, at a glance

April 3, 2025-3 min-

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jxrnl9xe2o

US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping new set of tariffs on Wednesday, arguing that they would allow the United States to economically flourish.

These new import taxes, which Trump imposed via executive order, are expected to send economic shockwaves around the world.

But the US president believes they are necessary to address trading imbalances and to protect American jobs and manufacturing.

Here are the basic elements of the plan.

10% baseline tariff

In a background call before Trump’s speech, a senior White House official told reporters that the president would impose a “baseline” tariff on all imports to the US.

That rate is set at 10% and will go into effect on 5 April.

It is the companies that bring the foreign goods into the US that have to pay the tax to the government, although this could have knock-on effects to consumers.

Some countries will only face the base rate. These include:

United Kingdom
Singapore
Brazil
Australia
New Zealand
Turkey
Colombia
Argentina
El Salvador
United Arab Emirates
Saudi Arabia

Custom tariffs for ‘worst offenders’

White House officials also said that they would impose what they describe as specific reciprocal tariffs on roughly 60 of the “worst offenders”.

These will go into effect on 9 April.

Trump’s officials say these countries charge higher tariffs on US goods, impose “non-tariff” barriers to US trade or have otherwise acted in ways they feel undermine American economic goals.

The key trading partners subject to these customised tariff rates include:

European Union: 20%
China: 54% (which includes earlier tariffs)
Vietnam: 46%
Thailand: 36%
Japan: 24%
Cambodia: 49%
South Africa: 30%
Taiwan: 32%

No additional tariffs on Canada and Mexico

The 10% baseline rate does not apply to Canada and Mexico, since they have already been targeted during Trump’s presidency.

The White House said it would deal with both countries using a framework set out in Trump’s previous executive orders, which imposed tariffs on both countries as part of the administration’s efforts to address the entry of fentanyl to the US and border issues.

Trump previously set those tariffs at 25% on all goods entering from both countries, before announcing some exemptions and delays.

25% tariffs on car imports

In addition, the president confirmed the beginning of a new American “25% tariff on all foreign made-automobiles”.

This tariff went into effect almost immediately, at midnight local time.

[VWD] : Vietnam has 4 solutions:

1) squeeze prices, reduce workers’ wages, to negotiate lower prices than current prices,

2) Manipulate currency to lower the value of the Vietnamese Dong (but will increase import prices to Vietnam),

3) Impose higher taxes on US goods (~13 billion USD compared to 124 billion USD of Vietnamese goods exported to the US), an infeasible measure because most Vietnamese goods are of the processed type such as iPhone assembly (Apple, Nike, .. will be severely damaged), equipment, garments, so they are easily replaced by goods from other developing countries in Central America, Africa, South Asia, …

4) Increase exports to other countries, this is not easy, because there are also tariff barriers, sometimes even higher. Countries that depend heavily on exports such as China, Vietnam, … are heavily affected.

Nguyen Hong Dien’s recent visit failed, as did the request for the US to recognize the market economy status (NME).