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Trump tariffs live updates: Trump reveals ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs across countries
- President Trump unveiled a two-step tariff approach on Wednesday: All countries will face a baseline 10% US tariff, and those with higher trade barriers against the United States will face additional tariffs.
- Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul reports that Wednesday’s announcement marks a middle ground between competing approaches that the president had been weighing in recent weeks.
- Trump stated he could have gone higher during a Rose Garden event at the White House.
- “The tariffs will be not a full reciprocal,” he said. “I could have done that, yes, but it would have been tough for a lot of countries who didn’t want to do that.”
- Ben writes:
- Read more here.
- Stocks sold off in after-hours trading as President Trump announced reciprocal tariffs to US trading partners.
- The Information Technology (XLK) and Consumer Discretionary (XLY) led the sell-off, both falling about 3% in post-market trading. Market leading stocks such as Nvidia (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN) and Tesla (TSLA) were all down 4% or more.
- Both Amazon and Tesla are members of the consumer discretionary sector and had helped stocks close higher on Wednesday headed into the announcement.
- Below is a look at the sector action in after hours trading.
- The team at the Cato Institute weighing in on president Trump’s new tariffs — calling them a “tax”:
- “With today’s announcement, US tariffs will approach levels not seen since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which incited a global trade war and deepened the Great Depression. Applied at breakneck speed without congressional authorization and employing flimsy and conflicting justifications, these so-called “reciprocal tariffs” don’t mirror foreign trade barriers and ignore those imposed by the United States. For all of President Trump’s talk of a new “golden age,” this huge tax increase will inevitably result in higher prices for American families, lower growth and business investment, and diminished exports and manufacturing output as the country’s factories face retaliation abroad and costlier inputs (roughly half of all imports) at home. 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.
- Opening foreign markets is a laudable goal but could have been achieved more broadly – and with far less damage – through traditional free trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump abandoned in 2017. Imposed at a time when both US industrial capacity and family wealth—which has nearly quadrupled since 1989—are all-time highs, Trump’s risible rhetoric about the economic power of tariffs is, like his trade strategy, detached from reality. The only thing these tariffs will “liberate” is money from Americans’ wallets.”
- President Trump announced on Wednesday the US will be placing a “baseline” 10% tariff on trade partners.
- Trump noted the reciprocal tariffs will be “half” of what they could be.
- “The tariffs will be not a full reciprocal,” Trump said. “I could have done that, yes, but it would have been tough for a lot of countries.”
- The 10% is a baseline. While running through a large board with each country sectioned out, Trump listed out tariffs for each country.
- The list includes 20% tariffs on the European Union, 34% tariffs on China, 46% tariffs on Vietnam, and 24% tariffs on Japan.
- “Liberation Day” has arrived after weeks of deliberation over the next step in President Trump’s trade agenda.
- You can watch a livestream of the president’s remarks and tariff announcement below. The event is set to begin at 4 p.m. ET at the Rose Garden.
- At stake is how the president plans to implement reciprocal tariffs on the rest of the world.
- Several proposals have emerged, including blanket 20% tariffs on all countries; tariff bands of 10%, 15%, and 20%; and a country-by-country approach. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly said Tuesday that the tariff rates announced Wednesday would take effect immediately and would serve as a ceiling that countries could negotiate down.
- We’re watching for other tariff announcements as well. These include the reinstatement of full 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada and some sector-specific duties that Trump has teased on items like lumber and pharmaceuticals.
- The Trump administration is also reportedly seeking to roll back the tariff exemption on cheap goods from China that was previously paused.
- Later this week, new 25% auto tariffs and “secondary tariffs” on Venezuela are set to begin.
- Stocks veered higher in the final hour of trading Wednesday as markets awaited the big tariff reveal.
- Investors will soon find out whether the stock market has discounted Trump’s tariff promises.
- The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added 0.6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) popped about 0.8% after all three indexes started the day in the red. Big Tech names in the Consumer Discretionary (XLY) sector led the way.
- Small caps, which tend to be more exposed to the US market, gained in anticipation of broad like-for-like tariffs, with the Russell 2000 (^RUT) climbing more than 1%.
- Bitcoin (BTC=F) and gold (GC=F) also added to weekly gains, while the 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) moved off a recent six-month low.
- Read more about today’s market action.
- President Trump is considering revoking tariff exemptions on small-value imports from China, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
- On Feb. 4, Trump moved to end duty-free entry of cheap goods from China. For years, duties on items worth less than $800 were waived due to a de minimis exemption, a loophole that fueled the rise of Chinese discount retailers Temu and Shein.
- However, on Feb. 7, US officials paused the decision to end that exemption due to the logistical chaos that ensued as small-value packages piled up at customs.
- Now, the administration has figured out how to implement the policy, Reuters reported, and it plans to follow through with stripping the de minimis exemption from Chinese imports.
- Read more here.
- Gas prices are making their seasonal climb, with the national average touching its highest level since September as a more expensive summer blend of driving fuel kicks in
- But the outlook going into the summer travel season could depend on today’s tariff announcements and how a transformed trade environment will affect growth — and, therefore, oil prices.
- Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré reports:
- Read more here.
- Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi writes:
- Read more here.
- Speculation about midterm elections has started to pick up as President Trump launches his trade agenda into high gear and Republicans watch to see whether consumers will tolerate higher tariffs.
- As Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul reports, there is concern from Republicans that they could be headed for a rerun of the 2018 midterm election cycle, when the GOP lost over 40 House seats amid Trump’s first wave of tariffs.
- He writes:
- Read more here.
- The US Commerce Department revised President Trump’s 25% tariffs on derivative aluminum products to include all beer and empty aluminum can imports.
- The department said in a Federal Register notice that duties on these products would be collected starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Friday, April 4. The revisions to Trump’s prior notice list the tariff code for beer made from malt, 2203.00.00, in the notice, as well as the empty aluminum cans under 20 liters code, 7612.90.10, per Reuters.
- The European Union is preparing emergency plans to bolster parts of the economy should they be hit hard by President Trump’s tariff agenda.
- Bloomberg reports:
- Read more here.
- Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that Mexico doesn’t intend to engage in a retaliatory trade war with the US as President Trump is set to unveil a sweeping new program of tariffs this afternoon.
- Sheinbaum said she will “announce a comprehensive program, not a tit-for-tat on tariff,” according to Reuters, with more details to come on Thursday.
- Sheinbaum and Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke on Tuesday to discuss their countries’ plans to address escalating trade tensions.
- “With challenging times ahead, Prime Minister Carney and President Sheinbaum emphasized the importance of safeguarding North American competitiveness while respecting the sovereignty of each nation,” Carney’s office said in a statement, per Reuters.
- BCA Research chief strategist Peter Berezin suggests investors should brace for a leaner stock market and economy as Trump tariffs and retaliations from trading partners like Canada, Europe, and China take hold.
- Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports:
- Read more here.
- Bloomberg reports:
- Read more here.
- US President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs will have a global negative impact, with the extent of the damage hinging on their duration, severity, and whether they result in successful negotiations, warned European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Wednesday.
- Reuters reports:
- Read more here.
- President Trump will hit top US trading partners with the highest level of tariffs possible on Wednesday, to serve as a cap for potential reductions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has reportedly said.
- The reciprocal tariff rates will be the highest the countries would face, Bessent told Republican lawmakers on Tuesday, according to reports from Reuters and CNBC. Countries could negotiate the level down if they meet US demands, Rep. Kevin Hern told the outlets about the .
- Trump’s deliberations on the shape and scope of the like-for-like tariffs look to be going on right down to the wire, ahead of the Rose Garden launch event at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The duties will go into effect immediately, the White House has said.
- There are signs from media reports that 20% duties are being considered by the Trump team, as Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul reports. Some in the administration are openly pushing for aggressive revenue goals, where the math would likely require some flavor of universal duties.
- A staple of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign trail rhetoric returned this week with a version of 20% “blanket” tariffs now apparently being considered as the president struggles to fill in the details of his “Liberation Day” promises.
- The potential move, applying to all or most goods imported to the United States, would represent a dramatic pivot of sorts for the president amid implementation worries and political complications that have dogged the White House’s long-promised plan for more specific country-by-country duties.
- But it would also mark a return to an approach to trade that Trump has long championed despite varied warnings from economists that it could have the deepest of consequences for the US economy.
- Read more here.
- Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, provided a few details today on President Trump’s event tomorrow, which will be held at 4 p.m. ET in the Rose Garden.
- On that timing: Some eagle-eyed observers have noticed that the event seemed to get pushed back — and also noted that 4 p.m. is when, coincidentally, the stock market closes.
- Leavitt also said the tariffs Trump announces would be “effective immediately.”
- She did not provide any details on the size or scope of what Trump could announce. As Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul has reported, those details have been shrouded in mystery — and confusion — in the lead up to Trump’s self-proclaimed “Liberation Day.”
- Here, Ben has the latest contours of a plan that is trickling out of the White House — the possibility of blanket tariffs on all US trading partners.
