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Trump’s Liberation Day Policy: A Path Tarred With Tariffs?

Recession looms closer, financial markets in turmoil, and reciprocal tariffs hit, as Europe, Asia, and parts of North America get caught in President Trump's tariff crosshairs. Will there truly be liberation?

President Donald J. Trump signs an Executive Order on on the Administration’s tariff plans at a “Make America Healthy Again” event, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in the White House Rose Gardent. (Photo: White House/ Abe McNatt)

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By Akerele Christabel

April 4, 2025
3:31 pm
Los Angeles, CA

“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down trade barriers.” This was President Trump’s promise to the people of America as he goes on to set off an open trade war of historical proportions. On Wednesday, 2nd April, 2025, President Trump triggered a global crackdown on imported goods, imposing tariffs of at least 10% for all countries, with some selected countries, like China, being slammed with higher rates. Trump suggested that the liberation day policy was a response to the tariffs imposed on American goods in other nations of the world. He is of the opinion that the move is only reciprocal, that American deserves

This was President Trump’s promise to the people of America as he goes on to set off an open trade war of historical proportions. On Wednesday, 2nd April, 2025, President Trump triggered a global crackdown on imported goods, imposing tariffs of at least 10% for all countries, with some selected countries, like China, being slammed with higher rates.

Trump suggested that the liberation day policy was a response to the tariffs imposed on American goods in other nations of the world. He is of the opinion that the move is only reciprocal, that American deserves to do those nations what they do to them. The White House looked at every countries trade in goods deficit for the past year, then divided that by the total value of imports. Afterwards, Trump, feeling “kind” went ahead to offer a 50% discount on those figures.

Previous administrations imposed lobbed tariffs on steel, tires, electric vehicles or other goods, However, none of those actions are as dramatically overreaching as Trump blanket-bombing the world with tariffs. Unsurprisingly, a global outcry has followed this action.

Global Reaction Follow The White House’s Sweeping Tariffs

CHINA

In a statement released on Thursday morning, China’s Ministry of Commerce has dubbed the move “a typical act of unilateral bullying”, adding that it will “resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests”. China, the second top exporter to the United States after Mexico, was hit hardest by the sweeping tariffs after it was lobbed with a 54% tariff.

President Trump says Beijing had been taking advantage of the United States. He illustrated this by holding up a chart listing countries and territories that he said had put up trade barriers to US goods, Trump said: “If you look at that… China, first row, 67%. That’s tariffs charged to the USA, including currency manipulation and trade barriers.”

“We are going to be charging [them] a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34%…In other words, they charge us, we charge them, we charge them less. So how can anybody be upset?” he added.

AUSTRALIA

“For Australia these tariffs are not unexpected but let me be clear — they are totally unwarranted. Trump referred to reciprocal tariffs. A reciprocal tariff would be zero not 10%. The admin’s tariffs have no basis in logic and they go against the basis of our two nations’ partnership.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

SWEDEN

According to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson,

“Free enterprise and competition have laid the foundations of the West’s success. That’s why Americans can listen to music on Swedish Spotify and we Swedes can listen to the same music on our American iPhones. This is why I deeply regret the path the US has embarked upon, seeking to limit trade with higher tariffs.”

DENMARK

Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said: “It’s beyond me that the US wants to start a trade war against Europe. No one’s a winner, everyone loses. Instead of raising walls, we should bring down barriers.”

FRANCE

In an interview on a French radio station, government spokesperson, Sophie Primas, accused Trump of wanting to be “master of the world,”. Primas insisted the tariffs would be a “hard blow” for the international and European economies, but said Europe will continue to negotiate with the US.

SWITZERLAND

Karin Keller-Sutter, president of the Swiss Federation, said: “The Federal Council has taken note of the US decisions on tariffs. It will quickly determine the next steps. The country’s long-term economic interests are the priority. Respect for international law and free trade are fundamental.”

Worldwide Fallout, As The Trump Tariffs Disrupt International Trading Order

One aftermath of the sweeping tariffs is global financial markets being swept off their feet by the headwinds caused by the policy. Trump’s intensifying trade war has eaten up trillions of dollars off the value of the world’s biggest companies. An estimated $2.5 trillion was wiped off Wall Street and share prices in other financial centres across the globe, with experts warning of impending recession.

The UK’s FTSE 100 index of blue-chip companies closed the day down 133 points, or 1.5%, to 8,474 after suffering its worst day since August.

All of the three most prominent US stock markets were down at the end of trading in their worst day since June 2020, during the Covid pandemic. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 5.97%, while the S&P 500 and the Dow dropped 4.8% and 3.9%, respectively. Apple and Nvidia, two of the US’s largest companies by market value, lost a combined $470bn in value by midday.

The US dollar fell by 2.2%, hitting a six-month low a day after the Liberation Day Policy was flagged off. The dollar, considered the safest world currency in the world for most of the 20th and 21st centuries, is now facing an increasing loss of confidence.

Apple, which makes most of its iPhones, tablets and other devices for the US market in China, was down 9.5% at close of trading, and there were steep declines for other large multinationals including Microsoft, Nvidia, Dell and HP.

Commodities fell sharply, including a 7% plunge in oil prices, reflecting growing concerns over the global economic outlook.

The non-partisan Tax Foundation thinktank said it estimated the plan would represent a “$1.8tn tax hike” for US consumers, which would cause imports to fall by more than a quarter, or $900bn, in 2025.

What The Experts Say

A Moody’s simulation predicted that the worst case scenario in the ongoing trade war will be a 20% universal tariff, along with full retaliation on US goods from other nations. According to Moody’s Analytics chief economist, Mark Zandi, if things escalate to that point, over 5.5 million jobs will disappear, while unemployment rate will rise to 7%, and the US GDP will drop by 1.7% from peak to trough, in what will be one of the biggest economic wipeout.

“If that happens, we get a serious recession. It’s a wipeout for the economy,” Zandi said, adding that he thinks Trump will later announce a less extreme tariff regime to avoid such damage.

Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, predicts multiple ways the chaos could pan out. One outcome is that reciprocal tariffs would start first with the “Dirty 15″, representing the 15% of nations that the United States has the biggest trade deficits with.

Adam Tooze, an economic historian at Columbia University in the US, drew attention to the “grotesque” policies for south-east Asian countries, including a 49% Cambodian tariff, and rates of 48% for Laos and 46% for Vietnam.

“This is not because they discriminate viciously against American exports, but because they are relatively poor. The US does not make a lot of goods that are relevant for them to import,” he said.

Vietnam in particular has become part of the global supply chain for major manufacturers, including US tech and clothing companies such as Nike, Intel, and Apple.

Head of US public policy at Pimco, one of the world’s biggest bond fund managers, said investors were getting worried about Trump’s increasingly rigid stance in the face of market downturn.

“There is likely a limit to how much pain he and his administration are willing to endure in order to rebalance the economy, but when that is or what that looks like remains to be seen. For now, we should assume that his pain tolerance is pretty high and that tariffs stick around for a while.” she said.

Inspite of all these, President Trump maintains a bullish front. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he said,

“I think it’s going very well. It was an operation like when a patient gets operated on and it’s a big thing. I said this would be exactly the way it is … We’ve never seen anything like it. The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom. The rest of the world wants to see if there is any way they can make a deal. They’ve taken advantage of us for many years. I think it’s going to be unbelievable. ”

Vice President JD Vance echoed this sentiment in an interview session with “FOX & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones on Thursday. He told Jones that “incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make us” was “not a recipe for economic prosperity.”

“For 40 years, we have gone down that pathway. We’ve seen closing factories, we’ve seen rising inflation. We’ve seen the cost of housing so high that most Americans can’t afford to buy a home right now. President Trump is taking this economy in a different direction.” Vance said.

Vance, when asked about American working-class citizens who are going to feel the full weight of the inflation the Liberation Day Policy will bring, said the administration had plans to lower those prices, along with one of the “biggest deregulation” in the country’s history.