Trump announces plans to impose tariffs on 150 countries

Tengrinews.kz – The United States intends to impose import duties of 10–15 percent on goods from 150 countries with smaller economies. This was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to RIA Novosti.

“We’re going to publish a single rate for the remaining (smaller) countries — almost 150 of them. We’ll just publish one number, and it will probably be 10 or 15 percent — we haven’t decided yet. It’s a big deal,” said the White House chief in an interview with the TV channel Real America's Voice.

After reassuming the U.S. presidency, Trump began tightening trade policy: he imposed tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, raised tariffs on China, and announced tariffs on steel, aluminum, and automobiles.
On April 2, Washington established reciprocal import tariffs. The base rate was set at 10 percent, but 57 countries were subject to increased rates. However, just a week later, the process was paused, and the U.S. began negotiations with many of its trading partners.
According to the U.S. Institute for Supply Management, such trade policy contributes to declining industrial activity in the U.S. and causes serious disruptions in supply chains. Businesses have entered survival mode as they are forced to absorb increased costs. Nevertheless, markets are increasingly ignoring Trump’s hardline statements, as he has previously eased measures after strong investor backlash.
NBC, citing an unnamed senior official, reported that U.S. Treasury and Commerce secretaries had urged the president to suspend the tariffs, panicking over the state of the bond market. Local officials also voiced concerns that Trump’s decision could trigger a new global financial crisis.