Donald Trump’s global tariffs take effect | BBC News

Donald Trump’s global tariffs take effect | BBC News

President Trump’s sweeping global tariffs for more than 90 countries have come into effect. Minutes before he took to social media saying it’s midnight. Billions of dollars in tariffs are now flowing into the United States of America. These tariffs or taxes on goods exported to the US were first unveiled back in April as his plan to change the global economy with virtually all of America’s trading partners affected. The president has now also threatened a 100% tariff on foreignmade computer chips as he pushes tech firms to invest in the US. Let’s look at some of the details. Now, India, for example, has a levy of 25% but President Trump has threatened to double that to 50% from next month over the ongoing fur of India buying Russian Russian oil. Delhi called the move unfair, unjustified and unreasonable. Some of the other steepest tariffs are on countries like Switzerland, Laos, and Syria. Other trading partners, well, they fare slightly better with 15% levies on exports from the European Union, Japan, and South Korea. And they’re among the few trading partners who have managed to strike deals with Washington. And the UK has emerged relatively unscathed with base tariffs of 10% after Sir Kir Starmer secured a trade agreement with President Trump. Well, joining me now to unpick some of this is our business presenter Sally Bundock, our India business reporter Deina Gupta, and our Southern Africa correspondent Pumzer Fellaini. Uh Sally, first of all, I mean, we’ve talked about this moment for months, ever since Donald Trump brought out that huge board just in the Rose Garden of the White House. We all remember it well, don’t we? Of course. Here we are. I mean, how big a moment is this for the global economy? It’s a new era for global trade that we’re seeing take effect today. So, as you say, on April the 2nd, which President Trump called Liberation Day, he revealed the list of countries and what tariffs would be on their goods when they were sent to the United States. Since that moment, there’s been negotiations, deals, um there’s been arguments, there’s been spats, and there have been all sorts of negotiations going on. and various countries now have got their own particular tariffs levels in place and for nearly all those countries that came into effect today. Some were at slightly different times like Brazil for example with this time yesterday but for majority today is the day. And what it means is for America their US levies on tariffs are now at the highest level for centuries. And as you mentioned there on social media at the moment the tariffs came into effect. The president put out that post on social media saying billions of dollars in tariffs are now flowing into the United States of America. But what this means for the different countries and different industries as well is complicated. There is so much detail and the devil is right in there. So if you’re a pharmaceuticals company, you still don’t know yet what the levies will be on your goods. He’s threatened something like 200% tariffs. If you’re a car maker, it’s different. If you’re a steel maker, it’s different. If you’re an American company importing all your goods uh from the Philippines or Vietnam or China, you’re paying these levies and you’re making decisions whether you’re going to pass them on to the US consumer, your customer, or whether you’re going to try and absorb it yourself. So many we I’ve spoken to chief executives of many small businesses in America who say we are on the brink. This is tipping us over the edge. Let’s get into one bit of that detail. there’s some specific tariffs against uh electronic goods, well semiconductors, chips in particular. Talk us through what that could mean for many people. Well, again, this is something that was announced yesterday by President Trump in the Oval Office. And at the time, he had Tim Cook right next to him, the chief executive of Apple. Basically, he said that 100% tariffs on imports of chips, semiconductors would be coming into effect soon. But there’s a big exemption to that and that is it will not apply to companies who are already manufacturing parts of their business in the US or have said they have plans to do so. And actually at the time as I mentioned the CEO of Apple was right there in the Oval Office uh Tim Cook pledging he would invest a further hundred billion into new manufacturing in the United States. So as ever it’s very unclear what this will mean. This was something that was said by the president. It’s not in paper. It’s not in writing. It’s not a deal uh by any means yet or an executive order. So for example, South Korea already today in reaction to that have said well actually our two biggest players in this sector which is Samsung Electronics and SKH Highix, it doesn’t apply to them because we have a deal with the US which means that our lower tariff will apply as opposed to 100%. And this is always the issue with this story. Um whether you are in France or in Germany or Brazil or Canada or wherever in the Philippines, Malaysia, the story is quite different and it’s very specific to the industry you’re in as well. So it’s complicated but do look at our website and the BBC news app because there’s a lot more detail there. Sally, thank you so much for boiling that down for us. We’re going to go around the world now and gauge reaction to this. Let’s speak to our India business reporter Deina Gupta who’s in Delhi. So 25% tariffs for India possibly going up to 50% uh because of their buying of Russian oil. Uh what is the reaction there? Well, let’s break down this headline number to 50%. And as Sally was saying, India story is quite different because here are two sticking points between India and US when they’re trying to negotiate a trade deal. The first has been what US has said, India’s import of Russian crude. Now India is the world’s third largest oil importer because it’s also the world’s most populous nation. So it needs to keep fuel at an affordable rate and that’s where Russia comes in which is India’s biggest supplier right now giving that fuel at an affordable rate. India has said that it cannot compromise on that because it needs to keep its national interest in mind. The second story the second uh sticking point here has been its agriculture sector. The US believes India’s agriculture sector has quite high tariffs. It wants to enter the sector with genetically modified goods. But India uh has been pushing hard. India’s prime minister just this morning said that we want to protect our farmers and we want to protect that in our national interest. So uh India is not budging there either and that’s where we seeing that a strong message coming out from this economy that u it’s unjustified what the US is doing at the moment. uh they are open for negotiations but on their own terms and this has made exporters and small businesses in leather and textiles and gems and jewelry industry quite nervous because at a 50% tariff uh which would be levied in just about 3 weeks from now live there is no negotiation they’re looking at an extremely uncompetitive market because they have to then look at prices uh of goods like garments coming from Bangladesh so Vietnam which will be cheaper in the American market. Uh they won’t be able to compete. Most of them have told us they won’t be able to absorb this cost. They will have to pass it on to their consumers. So it will be an extremely difficult time for them. They’re quite nervous but are hoping for a negotiation going ahead to reach a compromise between two sides. Kavina Gupta, thank you for joining us. We’re going to head on over to South Africa and speak to Pumsa Fani. Now South Africa’s being hit with some of the highest tariffs, isn’t it? How’s that going to affect the country’s economy? It certainly will be felt. I mean uh South Africa is the US is South Africa’s largest export u second largest rather export partner after China and some of the goods that it has been enjoying being able to export to China over the last 25 or so years under the AGOA agreement tax-free have included uh goods from the automotive industry, agriculture and textiles. So if we’re now talking about tariffs imposed there, some people have already warned economics um um an economic analysts rather have already warned that in the immediate future we could start seeing job losses in some of those industries. Now, if we drill down into who is doing those jobs, we’re talking about jobs that are usually found in rural parts of the country, more remote parts of the country outside of the economic hub, Kaeng, which is where we are. And these become the bedrock of the economy there. So, if we’re talking about job losses, this will have a real impact on people. And this could be felt over the next few months. Uh people have warned here. What are you hearing from business leaders, political leaders? Is there the potential for South Africa to sell more to other countries like China, Saudi Arabia to make up for the trade it may lose with the US? Well, politically, South Africa has been is one of those countries that historically has enjoyed having favorable relationships with most countries. So, more friends than enemies, if you will, and they’re hoping to leverage that in this period. they already have some um trade going with China like I’ve mentioned and other parts of Asia and they’re hoping to build relationships with the Middle East and also they they’re talking about boosting intra Africa trade really trying to focus on leveraging more of those existing relationships and seeing what kind of extra trade can be done there but it’s also it’s not just about getting into new markets it’s about a market that will be buying goods at the sim at a similar margin as what the US was doing and that becomes a bit more difficult because you will know that the markets are usually competitive. There are other people selling similar goods. So really it’s a time for South Africa to position itself and see if that it can put the best offer possible um as it trades as it looks at expanding trade with um within Asia and the Middle East. Just finally, what potential is there felt to be for South Africa South Africa to negotiate its way out of this and bring those tariffs down? Any hope of that? It’s quite a difficult one to answer at this stage. I mean, if you’re listening to, for example, the government’s trade ministers and ministers within that cluster describing the current environment and the process of negotiating with President Trump’s administration is they’ve diplomatically described it as complex and that is due to say that they feel at this stage that the the government will try kind of hold off as much as they can and see if South Africa can offer um something that uh will make the deal lucrative for them for the US. Pumsa fani in South Africa. Thank you so much for joining us.

US President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs on more than 90 countries around the world have come into effect.

Just before the deadline for deals to be agreed to cut or avoid the import taxes Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that billions of dollars were now flowing into the US due to tariffs.

Earlier, the president hit India with a 50% tariff, which will take effect on 27 August unless it stops buying Russian oil.

Trump also threatened a 100% tariff on foreign-made computer chips as he pushes tech firms to invest in the US.

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