Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: US President Donald Trump’s latest wave of import duty on exports from several trading partners, including India, Brazil, Canada, and Taiwan, on Friday slightly impacted markets on Friday as some countries tried to clinch better deals, the media reported.
His new tariff rates include a 35 percent duty on many goods from Canada, 50 percent for Brazil, 39 percent for Switzerland, 25 percent for India, and 20 percent for Taiwan.
Trump’s listed higher import duty rates of 10 to 41 percent, starting in seven days for 69 trading countries, effectively takes the US tariff rate to about 18 percent, from 2.3 percent in 2024.
The market response was not, however, as volatile as April’s global asset declines. But Trump’s tariff could drive up prices.
India’s Sensex and Nifty were down only by 0.72 percent and 0.82 percent, losing 585 and 203 points to close at 80,599 and 24, 565, respectively.
Countries hit with hefty tariffs said they will seek to negotiate with the US in hopes of getting a lower rate.
Switzerland said it would push for a “negotiated solution” with the US.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said the new 20 percent tariff rate for the island was “temporary” and that he expected to reach a lower figure.
South Africa’s Trade Minister Parks Tau said he was seeking “real, practical interventions” to defend jobs and the economy against the 30 percent US tariff it faces.
Southeast Asian countries breathed a sigh of relief after the US tariffs on their exports that were lower than threatened and levelled the playing field with a rate of about 19 percent across the region’s biggest economies.
Thailand’s finance minister said a reduction from 36 percent to 19 percent would help his country’s economy. “It helps maintain Thailand’s competitiveness on the global stage, boosts investor confidence and opens the door to economic growth, increased income and new opportunities,” Pichai Chunhavajira said.
Australia’s products could now become more competitive in the US market, helping businesses boost exports, Trade Minister Don Farrell said, after Trump kept the minimum baseline tariff rate of 10 percent for Australia.
Goods from all other countries not listed in Trump’s executive orders will face a 10 percent US baseline tariff. Trump had previously said that rate might be higher.
Tapping his emergency powers, Trump has been pressurizing foreign leaders, and pressed ahead with trade policies that sparked a market sell-off when they were first announced in April.
He issued a separate order for Canada that raises the rate on Canadian goods subject to fentanyl-related tariffs to 35 percent, from 25 percent earlier, saying Canada had “failed to cooperate” in curbing illicit narcotics flows into the US.
The higher tariffs on Canada contrasted sharply with Trump’s decision to grant Mexico a 90-day reprieve from higher tariffs of 30 percent on many goods to allow time to negotiate a broader trade pact.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was disappointed by Trump’s decision, and vowed to protect Canadian jobs and diversify exports.
India is in trade talks with the US after Trump imposed a 25 percent on it, a move that could impact about USD 40 billion worth of its exports.
China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with Trump’s administration.
The European Union struck a deal on a blanket 15 percent tariff with the US in July.
The bloc’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the framework deal the EU signed with the US gave EU exporters a “more competitive position.”