Trump Unleashes His Reciprocal Tariff Rates

President Donald Trump on Wednesday laid out the U.S. “reciprocal tariff” rates that more than 180 countries and territories, including European Union members, will face under his sweeping new trade policy.
Trump and the White House shared a series of charts on social media detailing the tariff rates they say other countries impose on the U.S. Those purported rates include the countries’ “Currency Manipulation and Trade Barriers.”
An adjacent column shows the new U.S. tariff rates on each country, as well as the European Union.
Those rates are, in most cases, roughly half of what the Trump administration claims each country has “charged” the U.S.
The reciprocal rates are not necessarily the only U.S. tariffs these countries will face.
The White House told CNBC’s Eamon Javers on Wednesday that the new reciprocal rate on China will be added to existing tariffs totaling 20%, meaning the true tariff rate on Beijing is 54%.
Trump said his plan will set a 10% baseline tariff across the board. But as his charts make clear, many countries are set to face significantly higher rates.
“We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us,” Trump said in an announcement in the Rose Garden at the White House.
“So, the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal,” he said.
But that halved figure includes “the combined rate of all their tariffs, nonmonetary barriers and other forms of cheating,” he said.
See all the new rates here:




According to NBC News, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed to Bloomberg News that goods brought in from China would now be facing an effective tariff rate of 54% — the sum of its newly imposed 34% rate plus the 20% rate Trump had already instituted in his new administration.
Bessent also shrugged off the market's reaction to the announcement:
Asked if he was concerned by the market moves, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg Television that he’s “learned not to look at what goes on during after-hours markets.”
Bessent added that the Nasdaq has a “‘Mag7’ problem, not a MAGA problem,” referring to seven large tech stocks often called the “magnificent 7.”
"I would advise none of the countries to panic," he added.
Global markets reacted sharply and swiftly after President Donald Trump revealed his much-anticipated tariff plans today, with investors fleeing U.S. stock indexes and companies that rely on global supply chains seeing their stocks plummet.
The ETF (exchange-traded fund) that tracks the S&P 500 plunged more than 2.7%. The fund that tracks the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 slid more than 3.5%, and fund tracking the Dow indicates it would drop more than 415 points at tomorrow’s opening bell.
At this writing, Dow futures have tumbled more than 950 points on fear Trump’s tariffs will spark trade war:
U.S. stock futures cratered as President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs of at least 10% and even higher for some countries, raising the risks of a global trade war that hits the already sputtering U.S. economy.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 963 points, or 2.3%. S&P 500 futures dropped 3.4%. Nasdaq-100 futures lost 4.2%.
Shares of multinational companies tumbled in extended trading. Nike and Apple each dropped about 7%. Shares of big sellers of imported goods were among the hardest hit. Five Below lost 15%, Dollar Tree tumbled 11% and Gap plunged 8.5%. Tech shares dropped in an overall risk-off mood, with Nvidia off 4.5% and Tesla down 6%.
The White House unveiled a baseline tariff rate of 10% on all countries that goes into effect April 5. Even bigger duties against countries that levy higher rates on the U.S. will be charged in coming days, according to the administration.
“We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us,” said Trump in a press conference from the White House Rose Garden. “So, the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal.”
That halved figure includes “the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of cheating,” he said.
What’s likely spooking traders is that these rates will end up being much higher than expected for many nations. For example, the effective tariff rate for China will now be 54% when accounting for the new reciprocal rate and duties already levied against the country, the White House clarified to CNBC. Traders had hoped a 10%-to-20% rate would be a universally applied cap, not a minimum starting point.
“What was delivered was as haphazard as anything this administration has done to date, and the level of complication on top of the ultimate level of new tariffs is worse than had been feared and not yet priced into the market,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management.
The S&P 500 rose for a third day Wednesday on hopes Trump would not announce a severe tariff plan on the risk it would tip the economy into a slowdown and raise already sticky inflation.
The benchmark has been hit hard since late February with it falling into correction territory — or 10% down from its record — because of the heightened uncertainty caused by Trump’s ongoing tariff announcements. This uncertainty has started to show up in some sluggish economic data, which further pressured stocks by heightening recession fears.
“If he would have come in with just the 10%, I think the markets would probably be up quite a bit right now,” said Larry Tentarelli, chief technical strategist at the Blue Chip Trend Report. “But because the tariffs came in bigger than many expected, I think what that does is it creates more downside volatility right now.”
Extrapolating the losses in after hours Wednesday trading, the S&P 500 is on course to fall back into a correction during regular hours trading Thursday.
Alright, Liberation Day has finally arrived and Trump finally made his big announcement on tariffs.
How big was today's announcement?
To put today's announcement in perspective, Douglas Irwin, a Dartmouth professor who is a leading expert on the history of economic policy, said on X that Trump's tarrifs are "bigger than Smoot-Hawley":
“This is going to be much bigger than Smoot-Hawley,” @D_A_Irwin says.
— Peterson Institute (@PIIE) April 1, 2025
“Imports are a much greater share of GDP now than they were back in the early 1930s by a long shot.” Imports of goods & services are 14% of US GDP — ~3x the share they were in 1930. https://t.co/p3tPxhnVxo
Thursday and Friday will be interesting days in markets as we get the reaction tariffs tomorrow and the US jobs report on Friday morning.
This clip will go down in history:
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) April 2, 2025
At 4:25 PM ET, S&P 500 futures were trading +1.7% higher.
At 4:26 PM ET, Howard Lutnick handed a poster outlining "reciprocal tariffs" to President Trump.
Stock market futures fell REAL-TIME as Trump read off tariffs name by name.
By 4:42 PM… https://t.co/8vehJNDgBn pic.twitter.com/odOkvY5ubD
One thing is for sure, traders will be looking to see how countries react, especially China.
Speaking of China, Arhur Budaghyan, Chief Emerging Markets/ China Strategist at BCA Research posted this on LinkedIn earlier today:

Why is this important? Simply put, if China starts slowing significantly, it could lead to a global recession and they might start exporting deflation again.
We are not there but it's telling that US long bond yields have been declining as markets fear growth disruptions a lot more than inflation effects of tariffs, for now:

But notice above, even though the 10-year US Treasury yield has dropped from 4.75% to 4.2% in the last few weeks, suggesting growth concerns swamp inflation concerns, it's not dropping below 4% precisely because the market fear inflation expectations will pick up in the second half of the year, putting the Fed in a pickle.
Having said this, there's an argument to be made that tariffs are ultimately more deflationary than inflationary if we get a global recession.
What about Canada? It looks like we escaped the worst case scenario but we are by no means out of the woods and we are definitely not immune to a global economic shock.
In our country, there will be winners and losers but we will not escape a recession if a serious trade war develops.
Anyway, the key point to all this is Trump has made his big bold tariff announcement and now we will all wait to see how the world responds.
Below, the BBC reports Donald Trump has announced sweeping tariffs on goods from countries around the world on what he called “Liberation Day”. The US President said it was the start of a "golden age" for America.
Also, Frank Lavin, former Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade criticizes Trump's 'scattershot' tariffs strategy for causing contradictory outcomes, hurting the US economy while increasing volatility. As the US becomes a less reliable trading partner, he sees other nations and businesses seeking opportunities elsewhere.
Third, former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers says the White House strategy on so-called reciprocal tariffs is "bizarre" and "naive." Summers spoke with Bloomberg's David Westin. When it comes to tariffs, he calls says the strategy is "a remarkable thing that this is the centerpiece of their economic program. And they're so nervous about its market impact that they have to announce it after the markets have closed."
Third, Carlos Gutierrez, former Commerce Secretary, joins 'Fast Money' to talk the economic impact of the recently announced reciprocal tariffs. Very insightful interview, take the time to watch it and listen to his analysis.
Lastly, I guess Trump never saw Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Tariff wars never end well.
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