Trade
Reciprocal tariffs ratchet up trade war
President Donald Trump says that he is imposing a 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports to the United States and higher duties on some of the country’s biggest trading partners, in a move that ratchets up a trade war that he kicked off on his return to the White House. The sweeping duties would erect new barriers around the world’s largest consumer economy, reversing decades of trade liberalisation that have shaped the global order. Trading partners are expected to respond with countermeasures of their own that could lead to dramatically higher prices for everything from bicycles to wine.