Trump’s tariffs

The president announced on Wednesday new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners that threaten to dismantle much of the architecture of the global economy and trigger broader trade wars, says The Associated Press.

Trump says he’s putting elevated tariff rates on dozens of countries that run meaningful trade surpluses with the United States, while imposing a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries in response to what he says is an economic emergency. 

He says the tariffs are designed to increase domestic manufacturing, describing the global trade system the United States helped build after World War II as having “plundered” the United States.

Trump’s action “amounts to a historic tax hike that could push the global order to a breaking point. It kickstarts what could be a painful transition for many Americans 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,” says AP.

Here is Trump’s list of more than 180 countries and territories facing “reciprocal tariffs,” from CNBC.

Here are FAQs from AP.

Here is reaction of world leaders, from BBC News.

Here is historian Heather Cox Richardson’s comprehensive and well-documented rundown of reactions from a variety of sectors.