WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that set new tariffs on a wide swath of U.S. trading partners to go into effect on Aug. 7 — the next step in his trade agenda that will test the global economy and sturdiness of American alliances built up over decades.
The order was issued shortly after 7 p.m. on Thursday. It came after a flurry of tariff-related activity in the last several days, as the White House announced agreements with various nations and blocs ahead of the president’s self-imposed Friday deadline. The tariffs are being implemented at a later date in order for the rates schedule to be harmonized, according to a senior administration official who spoke to reporters on a call on the condition of anonymity.
After initially threatening the African nation of Lesotho with a 50% tariff, the country’s goods will now be taxed at 15%. Taiwan will have tariffs set at 20%, Pakistan at 19% and Israel, Iceland, Norway, Fiji, Ghana, Guyana and Ecuador among the countries with imported goods taxed at 15%. Switzerland would be tariffed at 39%.
Trump had announced a 50% tariff on goods from Brazil, but the order was only 10% as the other 40% were part of a separate measure approved by Trump on Wednesday.
The order capped off a hectic Thursday as nations sought to continue negotiating with Trump. It set the rates for 68 countries and the 27-member European Union, with a baseline 10% rate to be charged on countries not listed in the order. The senior administration official said the rates were based on trade imbalance with the U.S. and regional economic profiles.
On Thursday morning, Trump engaged in a phone conversation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on trade. As a result of the conversation, the U.S. president said he would enter into a 90-day negotiating period with Mexico, one of the nation’s largest trading partners. The current 25% tariff rates are staying in place, down from the 30% he had threatened earlier.
“We avoided the tariff increase announced for tomorrow and we got 90 days to build a long-term agreement through dialogue,” Sheinbaum wrote on X after a call with Trump that he referred to as “very successful” in terms of the leaders getting to know each other better.
The unknowns created a sense of drama that has defined Trump’s rollout of tariffs over several months. However, the one consistency is his desire to levy the import taxes that most economists say will ultimately be borne to some degree by U.S. consumers and businesses.
I sympathize with the average american 401k holder or someone whose retirement depends on some SP500 index fund...
But if the play is so obvious, why not buy the dip as well?
That works best for people who have a few hundred million in cash. I got about tree fiddy.
Crustacean?
It's a quote from the original source of the "tree fiddy" meme, from South Park.
"Ooh, it must've been about seven, eight years ago. Me and the little lady was out on this boat, you see, all alone at night, when all of a sudden this huge creature, this giant crustacean from the paleolithic era, comes out of the water."
Oh, he says crustacean too, OK...
I personally have a few reasons, the biggest is that I just don't have the time to pay attention to the market that closely, especially since my trend line for the past year puts me right where I would have been regardless to what trump has done. It's all been up and down, but the outcome is that my portfolio is exactly where it would have been at its prior growth based on the past few years.
The other reason is that if I did join in with the sell high, buy low expectation that happens whenever trump says the word 'tariff' then I'd just be another person taking money from someone else who panic sold.
And then there's also the underlying fear that I'd screw something up and end up losing a good portion of my retirement trying to be greedy.
"Won't someone think of the 401k holders?"
Not saying they don't matter, but how about we care about the people who literally cannot afford to live first?