'Fundamentally wrong, brutal and paranoid': how will the world respond to Donald Trump's tariffs?

[babylonsister]

‘Fundamentally wrong, brutal and paranoid’: how will the world respond to Donald Trump’s tariffs?
The US president’s sweeping, unprecedented tariffs on countries around the world is threatening to reshape the global economy – so, what exactly happens next?
Edward Helmore in New York, Jon Henley in Paris, Amy Hawkins in Beijing, Vo Kieu Bao Uyen in Ho Chi Minh City and Rebecca Ratcliffe in Bangkok
Sat 5 Apr 2025 15.48 EDT


On Thursday evening, towards the end of a long week at a textiles factory on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyēn Thị Diẹu and her husband were watching the news. More than 8,700 miles away, US president Donald Trump was announcing sweeping, unprecedented tariffs on every country around the world. Nowhere was safe, even the uninhabited Heard Island and McDonald Islands off the western coast of Australia that, for some unexplained reason, were hit with a 10% tariff.

His announcement launched a fierce global trade war and triggered a global market meltdown, including on Trump’s own cherished Wall Street, where hundreds of billions of dollars of stock values evaporated.

And for Diẹu and her husband, it could mean they lose their jobs. They both work for a Taiwanese company making footwear in Vietnam for an American company, that exports them around the world. It is hard to find a better example of modern globalisation – and now, as the US enters a new age of protectionism, a speech in the White House Rose Garden means that Diẹu doesn’t know how her family will survive.

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Officials in Vietnam are concerned. The US is Vietnam’s biggest market, with exports making up 30% of the country’s GDP and fuelling its economic growth. Hours after the announcement, Vietnam’s prime minister ordered the creation of a “rapid response team” and said the deputy prime minister, Ho Duc Phoc, would head to the US for a “working visit”.

Every country around the world has had a similar reaction. In Europe, leaders condemned Trump’s tariffs as “fundamentally wrong” (Olaf Scholz), “brutal and unfounded” (Emmanuel Macron) and “contrary to the interests of millions of people, on both sides of the Atlantic” (Pedro Sánchez).

European media were similarly brutal. “Filled with paranoia, vengeance and coerciveness” was the verdict of Le Monde, while Italy’s Corriere della Sera urged the EU to threaten “counter-tariffs … to bring the US to the table. Clearly, the EU is being put through what amounts to a stress test. It will need to demonstrate unity.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/05/fundamentally-wrong-brutal-and-paranoid-how-will-the-world-respond-to-donald-trumps-tariffs