Trump escalates trade conflict: New tariffs announced for seven countries!

Trump escalates trade conflict: New tariffs announced for seven countries!

What kind of news is this from the USA? US President Donald Trump recently informed seven other countries about increasing tariff surcharges. These surcharges should be between 20 and 30 percent and come into force from August 1st. The affected states are the Philippines, Brunei, Algeria, Libya, Moldova, Iraq and Sri Lanka, such as Picture reported. On Wednesday, Trump published the corresponding letters on his online service Truth Social.

On Monday he had already sent similar letters to 14 other governments. He seems particularly keen on the countries of Algeria, Libya, Sri Lanka and Iraq, for which tariff surcharges of 30 percent have been announced. Moldova and Brunei have to make do with 25 percent, while an import surcharge of 20 percent is planned for the Philippines. The former president is clearly committed to sending similar messages to other trading partners in the future.

Background to the trade conflict

The issue of tariffs is not new to Trump. He had already sparked a trade conflict at the beginning of April when he announced high import surcharges for the EU and other countries, which were later reduced to 10 percent. In keeping with his upcoming political ambitions, he is planning a further package of tariff increases after his likely future re-election, which could also affect Mexico, Canada and China. Loud ZDF He sees tariffs not only as a political weapon, but also as a source of income to finance planned tax cuts for companies.

The corporate tax rate is currently being reduced from 21 to 15 percent in order to reduce the chronic trade deficit in the USA, which was over 773 billion dollars last year. But consumers will likely have to pay for the higher tariffs, which could fuel inflation. Experts warn that increased inflation could affect the interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve, which recently cut its key interest rate.

Consequences for Europe and the global economy

But the consequences of these tariffs are far-reaching, not only for the USA, but also for Europe. Higher tariffs on European goods could be loud ZDF lead to German exports to the USA declining by 15 percent. Looking at the trade figures, goods worth 157.9 billion euros were exported from Germany to the USA in 2023. Important sectors such as the pharmaceutical industry and mechanical engineering, which are heavily involved in export business, are particularly affected.

Experts also fear a global tariff spiral that could harm the German economy and fuel inflation in the euro area. Europe will therefore do well to prepare for a possible trade conflict and stand together to meet the challenges. Loud daily news Trump uses tariff threats to get other countries to negotiate trade agreements with the USA. But the negotiations are often lengthy and require a lot of patience.

Whether this conflict will surface again remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: Where tariffs are imposed, resistance must also be expected. We can only watch with concern whether and how the situation will develop.