US starts collecting new 10% tariffs
Certain goods exempted; markets plunge again
Reuters
WASHINGTON - U.S. customs agents began collecting President Donald Trump's unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday, [04/05/2025] with higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners due to state this week. [04/07/2025]
.....
The initial 10%"baseline" tariff took effect at U.S. seaports, airports and customs warehouses at 12:01 ET, ushering in Trump's full rejection of the post-World War II system of mutually agreed on tariff rates.
..... "This is the single biggest trade action of our lifetime," said Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade lawyer at Hogan Lovells and former White House trade adviser during Trump's first term. Shaw told a Brookings Institution event on Thursday [04/03/2025] that she expected the tariffs to evolve over time as countries seek to negotiate lower rates. "But this is huge,' she added. "This is a pretty seismic and significant shift in the way that we trade with every country on Earth."
..... Trump's Wednesday [04/02/2025] tariff announcement shook global stock markets to their core, wiping out$5 trillion in stock market value for S&P 500 companies by Friday's [04/04/2025] close, a record two-day decline. Prices for oil and commodities plunged, while investors fled to the safety of government bonds.
..... Among the countries first hit with the 10% tariff are Australia, Britain, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A U.S. custom and Border Protection bulletin to shippers indicates no grace period for cargoes on the water at midnight on Saturday. [04/05/2025]
..... But a U.S. Customs and Border Protection bulletin did provide a 51-day grace period for cargoes loaded onto vessels or planes and in transit to the U.S. before 12:01 AM. ET Saturday. [04/05/2025] These cargoes need to arrive by 12:01 AM. ET on May 27 [2025] to avoid the 10% duty.
..... At the same hour on Wednesday, [04/02/2025] Trump's higher "reciprocal" tariff rates of 11% to 50% are due to take effect. European Union imports will be hit with a 20% tariff, while Chinese goods will be hit with a 34% tariff, bringing Trump's total new levies on China to 54%.
..... Vietnam, which benefited from the shift of U.S. supply chains away from China after Trump's first term trade war with Beijing, will be hit with a 46% tariff and agreed on Friday [04/04/2025] to discuss a deal with Trump.
..... Canada and Mexico were exempt form both Trump's latest duties because they are still subject to a 25% tariff related to the U.S. fentanyl crisis for goods that do not comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada rules of groin.
..... Trump is excluding goods subject to separate 25% national security tariffs, including steel and aluminum, cars, trucks and auto parts.
..... His administration also release a list of more than 1,000 product categories exempted from the tariffs, Valued at $645 billion in 2024 imports, these include crude oil, petroleum products and other energy imports, pharmaceuticals, uranium, titanium, lumber,and semiconductors and copper. Except for energy, Trump administration is investigating several of these Sectors for further national security tariffs.
China to US: 'Market has spoken'
..... China said on Saturday [04/05/2025] "the market has spoken" in rejecting Trump's tariffs, and called on Washington for "equal-footed consultation" after global markets plunged in reaction to the trade levies that drew Chinese retaliation.
..... State-run Xinhua news agency also published the Chinese government;s stance, saying the U.S. should "stop sing tariffs as a weapon to suppress China's economy and trade."
..... Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan told public broadcaster RTHK, however, Hong Kong would not impose separate countermeasures, to remain "free and open."
.....
"The market has spoken," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Saturday [04/05/2025] in a spot on Facebook. He also posted a picture capturing Friday's falls on U.S. markets.
..... Trump introduced additional 34% tariffs on Chinese goods as part of steep levies imposed on most U.S. trade partners.
.....
Trump also closed a trade loophole that had allowed low-value packages from China to enter the U.S. duty-free.
..... This prompted retaliation from China on Friday, [04/04/2025] including extra levies of 34% on all U.S. goods and export curbs on some rare earths, escalating the trade war between the world's two largest economies.
..... Global stock markets plummeted following China's retaliation and Trump's comments on Friday [04/04/2025] that he would not change course, extending sharp losses that followed Trump's initial tariff announcement early in the week [04/02/2025] and marking the biggest losses since the pandemic. For the week, the S& P 500 was down 9%.
..... Now, is the time for the U.S. to stop doing the wrong things and resolve the difference with trading partners thorough equal-footed consultation," Guo wrote in English on Facebook.
..... In aspirate statement published by state run Xinhua news agency, the Chinese government urged the U.S." "Stop using tariffs as a weapon to suppress China's economy and trade, and stop undermining the legitimate development rights of teh Chinese people."
..... "China has takne and will contininue to take and will cinbtinue to take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests," said the government. Washington "seriously undermines teh rules-based multilateral trading system, and seriously undermines the stability of the global economic order,: it added.
.....
Earlier on Saturday, [04/05/2025] several industry chamber of commerce raging from those representing traders to electronics, issued statements condemning the tariffs.
..... China's chamber of Commerce, representer traders in food products, called on "China's food import and export industry to unite and strengthen cooperation to jointly explode domestic and foreign markets."
..... Hong Kong's Chan said it stringy opposes Trump's actions and would continue to be :free and open."
..... "Allowing a free flow of capital and action as a free port are our advantages, and this will not change," Chan told public broadcaster RTHK.
..... "The rules-based multilateral trading system is our core," he said.