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Donald Trump’s baseline tariff of 10% on products from all countries worldwide has taken effect.
The blanket tariff was announced by the US president on Wednesday evening, when his speech on so-called “Liberation Day” sent shockwaves across the global stock market as he unleashed sweeping taxes on imports.
Much higher tariffs against what Mr Trump branded as the “worst offenders”, such as a 20% rate for the EU and a 34% one for China, are set for 9 April.
A 25% tariff imposed on all foreign cars imported into the US came into effect on Thursday.
The baseline tariff came into place as stock markets plummeted amid a trade war sparked by Mr Trump’s radical measures and China’s retaliatory tariffs of 34% on US imports from 10 April.
How markets reacted
The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing on Friday 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.
All three of the US’s major indexes, including The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite, were down by more than 5% at market close on Friday, making for the worst day in American markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ever since the US president announced the tariffs, analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has been wiped off the value of the global stock market.
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