Talks continued until the very last minute. While Donald Trump had set August 1 as the deadline to implement so-called reciprocal tariffs of at least 10% on exports from around 80 countries to the United States, intended to offset what he considers abnormal trade deficits, announcements poured in on Wednesday and Thursday: South Korea (15%), the Philippines (19%), Thailand (19%)… The list is long, even though the resulting agreements have yet to be formalized in binding legal texts and currently serve more as negotiation frameworks. The implementation of these measures was postponed to August 7 to give US customs authorities time to organize collection.
After winning his standoff with the European Union (EU), which agreed on July 27 to accept 15% tariffs on its exports to the US without imposing retaliatory measures, the American president finds himself in a strong position to extend his protectionist policy to the rest of the world. “Tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again,” he wrote Thursday on his Truth Social platform.
It’s a wall of taxes not seen since the 1930s. Tariffs imposed by the world’s largest economy, which averaged 2.5% before Trump entered the White House, now look set to climb to around 17% on average. This offensive will have significant repercussions for global trade. A new geography of US foreign trade is already taking shape.
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