President Donald Trump's 10% baseline tariffs on US trading partners around the world came into effect on Saturday as he plowed ahead with his strategy to encourage domestic investment by companies eager to avoid import taxes.
While the baseline charge has kicked in, higher duties on some countries — which replace, rather than add to the 10% rate — are due to start on April 9.
Countries are weighing how to respond to Trump's latest levies, which raised US tariffs to their highest level in more than a century and battered the post-World War II world trading system he has long decried as unfair.
Trump's announcement Wednesday sent the S&P 500 index of US stocks to its lowest level in 11 months, wiping away $5.4 trillion of market value in just two trading sessions to close out the week. It was the steepest two-day slide since the pandemic hit the US in March 2020.
Complicating the challenge for foreign leaders and business executives are Trump's own mixed signals about his willingness to negotiate to reduce the size and scope of his tariffs. Late Thursday, Trump indicated he would be willing to lower his duties if other nations offered him something “phenomenal.”
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