WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump’s latest wave of tariffs on exports from dozens of trading partners, including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan, sent global stock markets down on Friday as countries pushed for talks to clinch better deals.
Trump’s new tariff rates include a 35 per cent duty on many goods from Canada, 50 per cent for Brazil, 25 per cent for India, 20 per cent for Taiwan and 39 per cent for Switzerland.
The presidential order, opens new tab listed higher import duty rates of 10 per cent to 41 per cent starting in seven days for 69 trading partners, effectively taking the US effective tariff rate to about 18 per cent, from 2.3 per cent last year, according to analysts at Capital Economics.
Global shares stumbled, with the STOXX 600 (.STOXX), opens new tab down 1.3 per cent at its lowest in a month. US stock index futures, were down 1 per cent, indicating a drop at the start of trade on Wall Street later. Futures tied to Canada’s main stock index slipped.
The market response was not as volatile as April’s global asset declines, said Wei Yao, research head and chief economist in Asia at Societe Generale, referring to the market slide after Trump’s initial tariffs announced on April 2.
“We are all getting much more used to the idea of 15-20 per cent tariffs being manageable and acceptable, thanks to the worse threats earlier,” she said.
U.S. Commerce Department data released Thursday showed prices for home furnishings and durable household equipment jumped 1.3 per cent in June, the biggest gain since March 2022.
Countries hit with hefty tariffs said they will seek to negotiate with the US in hopes of getting a lower rate.
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