WASHINGTON. March 15: A gobsmacked planet is wondering what’s next from President Donald Trump on the tariff spree he’s set in zigzag motion. In recent weeks, Trump has announced punishing tariffs against allies and adversaries alike, selectively paused and imposed them, doubled and then halved some, and warned late in the week that he’ll tax European wine and spirits a stratospheric 200 per cent if the European Union doesn’t drop a 50 per cent tariff on US whiskey.
His ultimate stated goal is clear: to revive American manufacturing and win compromises along the way. But people and nations whose fortunes rise and fall on trade are trying to divine a method to his machinations.
So far, he’s spurred fears about slower growth and higher inflation that are dragging down the stock market and consumer confidence.
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“His tariff policy is erratic, more erratic than April weather,” Robert Halver, head of capital markets analysis at Germany’s Baader Bank, said from the floor of the Frankfurt stock market. “So, there is no planning certainty at all.”
The same goes for Exit 9 Wine and Liquor Warehouse in Clifton Park, New York, where owner Mark O’Callaghan is waiting to see if the prohibitive taxes on European wine – over a third of his business – really happen.
He’s mindful of Trump’s seemingly whack-a-mole approach on which countries and goods to hit and how hard.
“It changes by the hour now, right?” O’Callaghan said. “You know, it’s hard to navigate and manage, and everything changes so quickly.”
In Canada, generations of political leaders took it as a point of pride that their country and the US share the “world’s longest undefended border”, as they liked to say. No more. (AP)
