World markets take a tumble as China slaps 34 per cent duties on all goods imported from US
Donald Trump
China on Friday hit back at the US by slapping an additional 34 per cent tariff on all imported American products. The tariffs will be imposed on all imported US products starting April 10, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. China also filed a lawsuit with WTO after the US slapped “reciprocal tariffs" on trading partners and has decided to ban the export of dual-use items to 16 US entities.
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World markets tumble
Stock markets worldwide were careening even lower on Friday after China matched Trump's big raise in tariffs. The S&P 500 was down 5 per cent in morning trading, coming off its worst day since COVID wrecked the global economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1656 points, or 4.2 per cent, as of 10.50 am (ET), and the Nasdaq composite was 5.5 per cent lower.
European stocks saw some of the day's biggest losses, with indexes sinking roughly 5 per cent. The price of crude oil tumbled to its lowest level since 2021. Other basic building blocks for economic growth, such as copper, also saw prices slide on worries the trade war will weaken the global economy. In other markets, Germany's DAX lost 5.2 per cent, France's CAC 40 dropped 4.6 per cent and Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.8 per cent.
Minor relief for India
The US has revised the import duties to be imposed on India from 27 per cent to 26 per cent, White House documents showed. Announcing reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump held up a chart that showed India charged 52 per cent tariffs, including currency manipulation and trade barriers, and said America would charge India a discounted reciprocal tariff of 26 per cent. Earlier White house documents indicated a 27 per cent tariff. India was among about 60 other countries against which the US has announced these high taxes.
‘US markets will boom’
Trump has previously said tariffs could cause “a little disturbance” in the economy and markets, and on Thursday he again downplayed the impact as he left the White House to fly to Florida. “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom and the country is going to boom,” Trump said.
Trump takes a break
Trump on Friday was at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach and played golf after writing on social media that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH”.
‘Unnecessary strain on US-India ties’
Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi condemned the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on India, saying the levies place an “unnecessary strain” on Washington's relationship with Delhi at a time when the bilateral partnership is crucial to counter China's military aggression and economic coercion. “President Trump's latest blanket tariffs on India are not only misguided but also profoundly damaging to the economic, diplomatic, and security interests of the US,” Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat lawmaker from Illinois, said.
‘Tariffs not based on standard economics’
A top trade analyst has said the Trump administration's calculations that led to the tariffs are “not standard economics” and in many cases impose rates far higher than those that the targeted countries apply to US goods. Julia Spies, chief of trade and market intelligence at the International Trade Center, said uncertainties remain about the exact way US officials came up with the tariffs. She said the figures roughly match the US trade balance—or imbalance—with a specific country, divided by imports from that country, “and that, divided by two, gives us the reciprocal tariff” imposed by the US.
India-US trade connect
From 2021-22 to 2023-24, the US has been India's largest trading partner. The country accounts for about 18 per cent of India's total goods exports, 6.22 per cent in imports, and 10.73 per cent bilateral trade. With America, India had a trade surplus (the difference between imports and exports) of $35.32 bn in goods in 2023-24. This was $27.7 bn in 2022-23, $32.85 bn in 2021-22, $22.73 bn in 2020-21, and $17.26 bn in 2019-20.
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