Trump sets 19% tariff rate on Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia; 10% global baseline rate
Taiwan got a 20% levy.
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump will keep minimum global tariff rates at 10 per cent, resisting prior suggestions he could raise the floor to 15 per cent or higher, according to a White House statement on Thursday.
The White House separately released a list of tariff rates on imports from several other trading partners that had yet to finalise trade frameworks as his Aug 1 deadline nears.
Thailand and Cambodia now faces a 19% U.S. tariff on its exports, the White House said. Washington had previously threatened to impose a 36% levy on these two countries.
Malaysia, which helped broker the ceasefire, was also set at 19%. That’s on par with previously announced rates for Southeast Asian neighbors Indonesia and the Philippines. Taiwan got a 20 per cent levy.
In a last-minute bid to avoid a higher punitive tariff, Thailand had offered greater market access for US products by pledging to scrap tariffs on 90% of its goods. It also promised to take non-tariff measures to cut its $46 billion trade surplus by 70% within three years, in addition to tackling the rerouting of goods produced in other countries.
The White House made the announcement in a fact sheet, which said the president had signed an executive order on Thursday. It was unclear how many trading partners will receive the minimum so-called reciprocal tariff rate and how many will receive higher levies.
SEE ALSO
Here’s the list of new tariff rates that Trump set on dozens of countries.
Trump also signed a separate order that increases the tariff rate on Canada to 35 per cent from 25 per cent, with the higher levy taking effect on Aug 1. That change excludes goods that are covered under a US-Mexico-Canada free trade pact he negotiated in his first term.
The rates come hours before Trump’s self-imposed deadline, and will hit a wide range of mostly smaller- and medium-sized economies countries that Trump showed little interest in bargaining with. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
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