WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump was expected to impose sweeping new reciprocal tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of rules-based trade, risking cost increases and likely drawing retaliation from all sides.
Details of the tariff plans, styled by Trump as America's "Liberation Day", were still being formulated ahead of a White House Rose Garden announcement ceremony scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern Time (2000 GMT).
The new duties are due to take effect immediately after Trump announces them, while a separate 25% global tariff on auto imports will take effect on April 3.
Trump has said his reciprocal tariff plans are a move to equalize generally lower US tariff rates with those charged by other countries and counteract their non-tariff barriers that disadvantage US exports.
But the format of the duties was unclear amid reports that Trump was considering a 20% universal tariff.
"It will be negative the world over and the density and the durability of the impact will vary depending on the scope, on the products targeted, on how long it lasts, on whether or not there are negotiations," she said in an interview on Ireland's Newstalk radio.
As a nervous world awaited details of the tariff plans, stocks retreated on Wednesday, while safe-haven gold held near record highs.
"I can't recall a situation where the stakes were this high and yet the outcome was so unpredictable," said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. "The devil is going to be in the details and nobody knows the details."
Across sectors, from cars to ocean freight shipping, luxury goods and beyond, business leaders waited to see what would hit them, all the more so as Trump has invoked emergency powers to swiftly add, and occasionally retract and reinstate tariffs.
"You cannot make important decisions on your supply chain when the rules of the game keep changing," said Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight pricing platform Xeneta.
A former Trump first-term trade official said that Trump was more likely to impose comprehensive tariff rates on individual countries at somewhat lower levels.
The former official added that the number of countries facing these duties would likely exceed the approximately 15 nations that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had previously said the administration was focused on due to their high trade surpluses with the US
"Either way, the impacts of today's announcement will be significant across a wide range of industries," said Ryan Majerus, a partner at the King and Spalding law firm. — Reuters
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