China responded to the 34% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on imports from China by announcing it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10.
Vietnam said its deputy prime minister would visit the U.S. for talks on trade. Some, like the head of the EU's European Commission, have vowed to fight back while promising to improve the rules book for free trade. Others said they were hoping to negotiate with the Trump administration for relief.
Seize the day
India was hit by a 26% tariff rate, lower than the 34% for Chinese exports and 46% for Vietnam. Its Commerce Ministry that it was “studying the opportunities that may arise due to this new development in U.S. trade policy.” It said talks were underway on a trade agreement, including “deepening supply chain integration.”
The U.S was New Delhi’s biggest trading partner in 2024 with two-way trade estimated at $129 billion, according to U.S. data. They have set an ambitious target of more than doubling their bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. Most pharmaceuticals and other medicines, important Indian exports to the U.S., are exempt from the reciprocal tariffs.
However, diamonds and other gems, another major export industry, are subject to the higher duties.
Business groups said they viewed the challenge as a chance to improve India's competitiveness. “At a time when global trade dynamics are shifting rapidly, Indian exporters must be equipped with the right policies, strategies, and support to compete effectively," S.C. Ralkan, head of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, said in a statement.
We need to talk
Most U.S. trading partners have emphasized they hope negotiations can help resolve trade friction with Washington. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was prepared to fly to Washington, in a last-ditch effort to forestall the 24% tariffs Trump ordered for exports from the biggest Asian U.S. ally.
“The global trading system has serious deficiencies,” the president of the EU's European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Thursday while on a visit to Uzbekistan. But she chided Trump, saying that “reaching for tariffs as your first and last tool will not fix it. This is why from the onset we have always been ready to negotiate with the United States.”
In Italy, Premier Giorgia Meloni told state TV she believes the 20% U.S. tariffs on exports from Europe were wrong, but “it is not the catastrophe that some are making it out to be.’’ Her government planned to meet next week with representatives of affected sectors to formulate plans. “We need to open an honest discussion on the matter with the Americans, with the goal, at least from my point of view, of removing tariffs, not multiplying them,’’ Meloni said.
Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Pham Thu Hang, said Hanoi would keep talking with the U.S. to “find practical solutions” as 46% U.S. tariffs threatened to decimate exports of footwear, electronics, textiles and seafood.
“If enforced, would negatively impact bilateral economic and trade relations as well as the interests of businesses and people in both countries,” Hang said in comments cited by state-run media, which reported that the deputy prime ninister and former finance minister Ho Duc Phoc was scheduled to visit the U.S. for trade talks next week.
A helping hand
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said he will offer the “greatest support” to industries most impacted by the new tariffs. Taiwan's trade surplus with the U.S. is relatively high partly because the island is a major source of computer chips and other advanced technology. Lai said in a statement on his Facebook page that “We feel that this is unreasonable and are also worried about the subsequent impact these measures may have on the global economy.”
Lai said he instructed Premier Cho Jung-tai to work closely with industries that are impacted and to communicate with the public about their plans to stabilize the economy.
Japan's leader Ishiba and other governments also said they were preparing countermeasures to help industries cope.
Likewise, von der Leyen said the EU was consulting with steel and auto makers, pharmaceutical companies and other industries about how to give them more “breathing space.”
Looking elsewhere
Trump's decision to sharply raise tariffs on countries spanning the globe is “self-defeating,” Wang Huiyao, president of the Chinese think tank Center for China and Globalization, said in an interview.
The latest tariffs impose heavy burdens on some countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
It's a trade war with the world, Wang said, while China's strategy is to trade more with Southeast Asia and Latin America, with Europe, the Middle East and other developing nations.
“The likely outcome is that China will become the largest trading nation and its economy will be trading more with other nations and the U.S. may ... become more isolated,” Wang said.
Europe will work to build more bridges and as a regional economic bloc of 450 million people, larger than the United States, it also has its own huge market, said von der Leyen, the EC president.
The EU is its own “safe harbor in tumultuous times,” she said.
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AP journalists from around the world contributed.
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