The global trade war is officially heating up. President Trump just unveiled a series of tariffs that were higher than expected, and business leaders all over the world are absolutely stunned. For many of those that have made a killing importing goods into the United States, their businesses have now been ruined. For many of those that manufacture their goods right here in the United States, President Trump’s tariffs are very welcome news. The tariffs that Trump has just announced will go into effect right away, and stock futures are plunging as I write this article. During the economic chaos that is ahead, there will be winners and there will be losers. But without a doubt, the global trade war that has now fully erupted will certainly be an enormous shock to the global economy.
It is being reported that Trump’s plan includes a 10 percent baseline tariff rate and “additional reciprocal tariffs” on dozens of nations that have been imposing very high tariffs on U.S. imports…
President Donald Trump announced sweeping 10% tariffs on imports from all countries on Wednesday, fulfilling a pledge to retaliate against countries he says have treated the U.S. unfairly.
Trump is also imposing additional reciprocal tariffs on goods from 60 countries that are the largest contributors to the U.S. trade deficit. The rates of the targeted tariffs will be set at half the rates these countries charge on U.S. exports, Trump said from the White House while holding up a list of dozens of countries that included Japan, Taiwan, India and others.
The White House has released a list of the tariff rates that will be imposed on various nations around the world. In many cases, we will be imposing a tariff rate that is half as high as other countries are imposing on us…
I think that it makes sense that if other countries are hammering us with ridiculously high tariffs they should expect to get hammered with ridiculously high tariffs in return.
President Trump insists that the U.S. “has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far” for far too long…
“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day,” Trump said during the Rose Garden ceremony attended by Vice President JD Vance, Cabinet members and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike.”
Trump is quite right about that.
We have been getting abused by other countries, and it needs to stop.
But there is no doubt that these new tariffs will hit our standard of living extremely hard.
CNBC has confirmed that the 34 percent reciprocal tariff on Chinese imports will be on top of the 20 percent tariff that has already been imposed on Chinese imports…
The White House clarified to CNBC’s Eamon Javers that the tariff rate on Beijing comes in addition to existing 20% tariffs on Chinese imports, meaning the true tariff rate on China is 54%.
For a moment, I want you to think about all of the products that are “made in China” that fill up the shelves at Walmart, Target and our dollar stores.
Now a whopping 54 percent tariff will be imposed on those products as they enter the United States, and the companies that sell those products will have to pass that cost along to the rest of us.
So thousands upon thousands of products that we all purchase on a regular basis are about to get much more expensive.
It will be an epic inflationary shock, and those on the lower levels of the economic food chain will feel the most pain.
On the flip side, there is some good news.
Canada is our number one trading partner and Mexico is our number two trading partner and at least for now both of them will be exempt from the tariffs that President Trump unveiled today…
The Trump administration announced Wednesday that Canada and Mexico will be exempt from the baseline 10% tariff rate, as well as reciprocal levies for specific countries for now.
The 10% tariff would only kick in when the original 25% duties Trump slapped on Canadian and Mexican imports are terminated or suspended.
As he was revealing these new tariffs, Trump boldly proclaimed that April 2nd would “forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn”…
He said April 2, 2025, “will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.”
And he also stated that jobs and factories “will come roaring back into our country”…
Trump lays out his theory that tariffs will bring back a “golden age” for the US, a phrase he also used in his inaugural address:
“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base.”
I do believe that these new tariffs will create a tremendous incentive to make things in America.
And that is a very good thing.
But it will take time for new factories to be built and new jobs to be created.
Meanwhile, everyone agrees that there will be short-term pain.
Trade experts at the Cato Institute are bracing for the worst…
Trade experts Colin Grabow and Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said in a statement that the White House’s barrage of new tariffs will raise prices for U.S. consumers, dent business investment, dampen broader economic growth and expose American manufacturers to retaliatory trade measures from other countries.
“The tariffs’ only clear beneficiaries, meanwhile, will be corporate cronies, K Street influence peddlers and American adversaries who profit from the United States’ tarnished international reputation,” Grabow and Lincicome said.
My biggest concern is for low-income workers.
It is being projected that these new tariffs could cost the average U.S. household approximately $4,000 a year…
Donald Trump has been warned that his “Liberation Day” tariffs could end up costing the average US household $4,200 (£3,235) a year. A broad 20% tariff would send consumer prices soaring by 2.1% to 2.6%, Yale Unversity’s Budget Lab said. It explained: “This is equivalent to a loss of purchasing power of $3,400-4,200 per household on average in 2024 dollars.”
And the OECD is warning us that the global trade war that has now fully erupted could potentially cause the global economy to shrink by up to 5 percent…
According to research by the OECD, a global trade war could shrink the world economy by over 5%, with countries like the UK and Canada among the hardest hit.
If you have been expecting global economic chaos to arrive, the wait is over.
I anticipate that many other countries will retaliate by pushing tariffs on imports from the United States significantly higher.
And Trump will likely respond to that by hitting those nations with even harsher tariffs.
Stock prices are probably going to be flying all over the place during the months ahead, and global supply chains will be thrown into a state of turmoil.
But now that Trump has lowered the boom, there is no going back now.
Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.