WASHINGTON 鈥� President Donald Trump announced far-reaching new tariffs Wednesday on nearly all U.S. trading partners 鈥� a 34% tax on imports from China and 20% on the European Union, among others 鈥� that threaten to dismantle much of the architecture of the global economy and trigger broader trade wars.
Trump, in a Rose Garden announcement, said he placed elevated tariff rates on dozens of nations that run trade surpluses with the United States, while imposing a 10% baseline tax on imports from all countries in response to what he called an economic emergency.
The president, who said the tariffs were designed to boost domestic manufacturing, used aggressive rhetoric to describe a global trade system that the United States helped build after World War II, saying "our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered" by other nations.
The action amounts to a historic tax hike that could push the global order to a breaking point. It kick-starts what could be a painful transition as middle-class essentials such as housing, autos and clothing are expected to become more costly, while disrupting the alliances built to ensure peace and economic stability.
Trump said he acted to bring in hundreds of billions in new revenue to the U.S. government and restore fairness to global trade.
Hours later Wednesday, the Senate passed a resolution that would thwart聽聽ability to impose tariffs on Canada, a rare rebuke.
The Senate resolution, passed by a 51-48 vote tally, would end 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 emergency declaration on fentanyl that underpins tariffs on Canada. Trump earlier聽聽鈥� his so-called聽聽鈥� to impose import taxes on a slew of international trading partners, though Canadian imports for now were spared from new taxes.
The Senate鈥檚 legislation ultimately has little chance of passing the Republican-controlled House and being signed by Trump, but it聽聽for 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 vision of remaking the U.S. economy by restricting free trade.
The new taxes fulfill a key campaign promise as Trump imposed what he called "reciprocal" tariffs on trade partners, acting without Congress under the 1977 International Emergency Powers Act. But his action Wednesday could undermine the voter mandate last year to combat inflation that helped return him to the White House after a four-year hiatus, a choice that could carry tremendous economic risks for the public.
"With today's announcement, U.S. 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," said Scott Lincicome and Colin Grabow of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
The president's higher rates would hit foreign entities that sell more goods to the U.S. than they buy, and could stay in place for some time as the administration expects other nations to lower their tariffs and other barriers that it says led to a $1.2 trillion trade imbalance last year.
The new tariffs come on top of recent announcements of 25% taxes on auto imports; levies against China, Canada and Mexico; and expanded trade penalties on steel and aluminum. Trump also imposed tariffs on countries that import oil from Venezuela and he plans import taxes on pharmaceutical drugs, lumber, copper and computer chips.
Threats of backlash
Senior administration officials, who insisted on anonymity to preview the new tariffs ahead of Trump's speech, said the taxes would raise hundreds of billions of dollars annually in revenues.
They said the 10% baseline rate existed to help ensure compliance, while the higher rates were based on the trade deficits run with other nations and then halved to reach the numbers Trump presented in the Rose Garden.
The 10% rate would be collected starting Saturday and the higher rates would be collected beginning April 9.
Most outside analyses by banks and think tanks see an economy tarnished by higher prices and stagnating growth.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said the tariffs are "part of the chaos and dysfunction" generated across the Trump administration. The chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee stressed that Trump should not have the sole authority to raise taxes as he intends without getting lawmakers' approval, saying that Republicans so far were "blindly loyal."
"The president shouldn't be able to do that," DelBene said. "This is a massive tax increase on American families, and it's without a vote in Congress. 鈥� President Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would lower costs on day one. Now he says he doesn't care if prices go up 鈥� he's broken his promise."
Even Republicans acknowledged the tariffs could disrupt an economy with an otherwise healthy 4.1 % unemployment rate.
"We'll see how it all develops," said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. "It may be rocky in the beginning. But I think that this will make sense for Americans and help all Americans."
Allies brace
Longtime trading partners are preparing their own countermeasures. Canada imposed some in response to the 25% tariffs that Trump tied to fentanyl trafficking. The European Union, in response to the steel and aluminum tariffs, put taxes on $28 billion worth of U.S. goods, including bourbon, which prompted Trump to threaten a 200% tariff on European alcohol.
"Europe has not started this confrontation," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. "We do not necessarily want to retaliate but, if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it."
Italy's conservative premier, Giorgia Meloni, reiterated her call Wednesday to avoid an EU-US trade war, saying it would harm both sides and would have "heavy" consequences for her country's economy.
Because Trump hyped his tariffs without providing specifics until Wednesday after U.S. markets closed, he provided a deeper sense of uncertainty for the world, a sign that the economic slowdown could extend beyond U.S. borders to other nations that would see one person to blame.