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Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ is set to whack US economy

A rush of new tariffs will hurt growth, raise prices and worsen inequality

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Published Tue, Apr 1, 2025 · 05:00 AM
    • With multiple rounds of tariffs already implemented against China, Canada and Mexico – plus the 25 per cent tariff on cars announced last week which is due to start on Apr 3 – he has already lifted America’s effective tariff rate to about 8 per cent, up from 2 per cent last year, the highest it has been since the 1940s.
    • With multiple rounds of tariffs already implemented against China, Canada and Mexico – plus the 25 per cent tariff on cars announced last week which is due to start on Apr 3 – he has already lifted America’s effective tariff rate to about 8 per cent, up from 2 per cent last year, the highest it has been since the 1940s. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

    EVEN his most ardent detractors would grant that Donald Trump is a masterful marketer. So it goes for the barrage of tariffs that he is set to unveil on Apr 2. The US president has promised they will mark “Liberation Day” for America – a turning point when the country starts to claw back the respect and money that, he thinks, it has lost over the decades.

    In practice, there will be nothing liberating about it. Over the two months since returning to the White House, Trump will have brought America’s overall tariff level to its highest since the second world war, setting the country up for slower economic growth, higher inflation, more inequality and, quite possibly, fiscal trouble.

    How bad will things get? Everyone, reportedly including Trump’s closest advisers, is awaiting the final details. The president has swung between hinting at lenience and insisting his administration must take a hard line. Yet, as he has done so, the outline of his approach has come into focus.

    US tariffsDonald Trump

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