The moratorium, agreed at the dawn of the internet, lapsed for the first time in 28 years after World Trade Organization countries failed to agree on a routine extension.

Four days of talks among trade ministers in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde broke up in the early hours of Monday with Brazil and Turkey blocking a bid to extend the e-commerce moratorium, which including on digital downloads and streaming.

Countries also failed to agree on a path to reform.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement that he has secured agreements from dozens of countries, including nearly all major trading partners, not to impose tariffs on U.S. digital transmissions. He vowed that if the WTO fails to restore the moratorium, “the United States will work outside of the WTO with all interested partners to get it done.”

Greer, who is the architect of U.S. President Donald Trump’s multi-front tariff assault on global trading partners, said he was disappointed that the meeting ended in an impasse. He said some countries demonstrated a “lack of seriousness” in WTO reform by not sending their trade ministers to Cameroon.

“I have always been skeptical of the value of the WTO, and this week’s conference confirmed that this organization will play only a limited role in future global trade policy efforts,” Greer said.

Increasingly sidelined by economic nationalism

The WTO has been increasingly sidelined by economic nationalism in the past decade, and its 14th ministerial conference in Cameroon will further that trend, analysts said.

The talks tested the WTO’s relevance after a year of huge trade turmoil and more recent disruptions in the Middle East.

Still, a subset of 66 members did agree to sidestep previous hurdles to ‌usher in the world’s first baseline deal on digital trade rules among participants.

The parties of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership — 12 countries including Australia, Britain, Canada, Japanand Mexico but not the U.S. — met with the EU on the sidelines of the WTO talks.

As diplomats pursue a mix of agreements between two or larger subsets of countries, they risk creating a complex “spaghetti bowl” of agreements, said Dmitry Grozoubinski, executive director of the Geneva Trade Platform.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the trade body hoped the moratorium could still be restored, adding that Brazil and the U.S. were trying to reach agreement on it.

— Additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia and David Lawder in Washington, D.C.

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The paper, released ahead of this week’s triennial WTO Ministerial meeting in Cameroon, underscores the U.S. Trade Representative’s insistence on sweeping reforms that are in line with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade agenda and allow for more plurilateral trade agreements and differentiated tariffs.

• U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is expected to attend the March 26-29 ministerial meeting in Yaoundé.
• USTR has already rejected one proposal for reforming the WTO.
• The meeting in Cameroon comes at a critical moment for the WTO as Trump continues to upend the tariff system.
• U.S. says adherence to the Most Favored Nation principle and tariffs negotiated decades ago precludes WTO members from differentiating among trade partners.
• Without naming China, USTR quoted a January speech by Greer in which he said that some countries structurally export more than they import to seek a “shortcut to growth at others’ expense.”
• “In sum, members need to explore options so that they can more easily adjust their tariffs in response to threats to their economies, including from countries that run persistent and large surpluses or drive imbalances by building and maintaining overcapacity,” USTR said.
• The World Trade Organization’s 164 members commit to treating other members equally so they can all benefit from each other’s lowest tariffs, highest import quotas and fewest trade barriers. This principle is known as Most Favored Nation treatment.

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The sources told Reuters that the “candid and constructive” Paris talks led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng would set in motion possible “deliverables” for Trump’s trip to China to meet with Xi at the end of March.

But they added that the leaders would have the final say on the proposals.

Agricultural goods

The Chinese side showed openness to potential additional purchases of U.S. agricultural goods including poultry, beef and non-soybean row crops, one of the sources said, adding that China was still committed to buy 25 million metric tons of American soybeans for each of the next three years.

Chinese officials left the talks at OECD headquarters in Paris without speaking to reporters. The discussions follow several meetings to ease tensions last year between Bessent, He, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang.

“All these meetings were to create stability, and today was remarkably stable,” one of the sources said of the talks.

Spokespersons for the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office declined to characterize the discussions on Sunday.

Managed trade mechanism

The two sides discussed the establishment of new formal mechanisms to help manage trade and investment between the world’s two largest economies that may be considered by Trump and Xi in Beijing, the sources said. Technical talks on the proposed U.S.-China “Board of Trade” and “Board of Investment” were expected on Monday.

One of the sources said that the Board of Trade was the more developed of the two proposals, and would be aimed at finding products and sectors where the U.S. and China could increase trade in a balanced way without compromising each other’s national security or critical supply chains.

The Board of Investment would not set broad investment policies but would address “discrete investment issues” that may arise between the countries, the source said.

Critical minerals

The sources also said U.S. officials discussed the flow of Chinese-produced critical minerals to U.S. companies and raised concerns about the U.S. aerospace industry’s lack of access to yttrium from China, which is used in jet engine turbines, among other applications.

One of the sources said the two sides “found some ways to loosen up” more challenging areas in critical minerals, but did not provide specifics.

Greer and Bessent in the talks also emphasized the U.S. desire for China to increase purchases of Boeing jetliners and U.S. coal, oil and natural gas, which could be further discussed on Monday, the sources said.

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“They have a few ideas on how they might want to have a deal with us. We’re obviously open to that,” Greer said in an interview on Fox Business Network.

WHY IT MATTERS: Canada and U.S. agricultural supply chains are heavily integrated and could face disruption, depending on the outcome of the CUSMA review.

Greer said he spoke with his trade counterpart earlier on Wednesday and that they would meet in Washington “in a couple weeks.”

“We’re open to talk, and we’ll see what they have to say,” Greer told FBN’s “Mornings with Maria” program.

Representatives for Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S.-Canada tensions have grown in recent months over trade and other issues as Trump has targeted Washington’s northern neighbor.

The Trump administration is reviewing the Canada-United States-Mexico trade pact enacted during Trump’s first term in the White House term and faces a July 1 deadline to notify Congress whether it plans to change the agreement.

‘Reshoring’ not moving fast enough: Greer

Greer said U.S. officials are focused on moving production of cars and other goods back to the U.S. But the reshoring of critical supply chains is not happening fast enough under the current pact, he said in a separate interview with CBC News, expressing concern that China will funnel goods through Canada to avoid certain tariffs as Beijing and Ottawa seek to develop closer ties.

“We don’t want a situation where Canada’s being used as a back door for Chinese goods,” he told CBC reporter Katie Simpson late on Tuesday in a video posted on X.

“If Canada wants to agree that we can have some level of higher tariff on them while they open their markets to us on things like dairy and other things, then that’s a helpful conversation,” Greer added.

Trump has said Washington could leave CUSMA and strike separate deals with Canada and Mexico as his administration pursues separate talks with each bordering country.

Greer told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday that he would continue separate negotiations with representatives of Canada and Mexico over the coming year “because our relationships with those countries are so different.”

One solution could be to “tack on” separate protocols for each nation onto CUSMA “to fix some of the gaps,” he said.

— Additional reporting by Promit Mukherjee

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Trump initially signed an order on Friday for a 10 per cent tariff to last 150 days to replace broad duties under an emergency law that were struck down by the Supreme Court, but on Saturday, he said he would increase the rate to 15 per cent.

WHY IT MATTERS: Canadian agricultural goods are largely exempt from new, 10 per cent tariffs under the CUSMA trade agreement. However, the tariffs and uncertainty in the marketplace may have other knock-on effects for the sector.

But on Monday night before the midnight start of collections, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency notified shippers that the rate would be 10 per cent..

The White House official told Reuters that Trump has had “no change of heart” in his desire for a 15 per cent tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, but offered no details on the timing for that increase.

As of Monday, Trump had not signed a formal presidential order for the increase to 15 per cent and CBP can only act on published presidential executive orders and proclamations.

CBP’s notice referred to his Friday order, saying that aside from products covered by exemptions, imports would “be subject to an additional ad valorem rate of 10 per cent.”

Unclear why lower rate is imposed

The move added to confusion surrounding U.S. trade policy, with no explanation offered in the notice for why the lower rate had been used.

“Remember that Trump is delivering the State of the Union address tonight, so it’s possible we might get a better sense of the next steps on tariffs,” Deutsche Bank said in a note.

“Net-net we still think the effective tariff rate will fall this year and that the world post-SCOTUS will see lower tariffs than the pre-SCOTUS world,” its analysts said, using the acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States.

The new tariffs took effect at midnight, while collection of the tariffs annulled by the Supreme Court was halted. They had ranged from 10 per cent to as much as 50 per cent.

It remains unclear whether and how companies will be refunded for tariff payments made under the regime annulled by the Supreme Court.

The Section 122 law allows the president to impose the new duties for up to 150 days to address “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficits and “fundamental international payments problems.”

Trump’s tariff order argued that a serious balance-of-payments deficit existed in the form of a $1.2 trillion annual U.S. goods trade deficit, a current account deficit of four per cent of GDP and a reversal of the U.S. primary income surplus. But some economists and trade lawyers argue that the U.S. is not on the cusp of a balance-of-payments crisis, making the new duties vulnerable to a legal challenge.

Trump warns against reneging on trade deals

On Monday Trump warned countries against backing away from any previously negotiated trade deals with the U.S., warning he would hit them with much higher duties under different laws.

Japan said it had asked the United States to ensure its treatment under a new tariff regime would be as favourable as in an existing agreement. The European Union, Britain and Taiwan all indicated a preference to stick to their deals too.

Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING, noted that even with the 150-day limit of the current set of measures, the trade uncertainty was unlikely to go away soon.

“Because the next thing that he (Trump) could do is always, with the interruption of one day, theoretically endlessly extend by 150 days,” he said.

China meanwhile urged Washington to abandon its “unilateral tariffs”, indicating it was willing to hold another round of trade talks with the world’s largest economy, the country’s commerce ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

— Additional reporting by Mark John and Francesco Canepa in Frankfurt

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Bessent said other countries in Southeast Asia have agreed to buy another 19 million tons of U.S. soybeans, but did not specify a timeframe for those purchases.

“So our great soybean farmers, who the Chinese used as political pawns – that’s off the table, and they should prosper in the years to come,” Bessent told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” program.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Sv1 reversed earlier losses and rose 1.35 per cent to $11.09-1/4 per bushel on Thursday after Bessent’s interview.

China diversifying soybean purchases

In 2024, the U.S. exported nearly 27 million tons of soybeans to China.

U.S. President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post overnight after a meeting with Xi Jinping in South Korea that the Chinese leader had authorized China to begin the purchase of massive amounts of soybeans, sorghum and other farm products.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins applauded Trump’s comments on soybeans and sorghum in a post on X.

But Even Rogers Pay, director at Beijing-based Trivium China, said the agreement effectively constitutes a return to business as usual in terms of U.S. soybean exports to China.

“It targets a level of trade that has been pretty consistent with the past few years,” she said.

Johnny Xiang, founder of Beijing-based AgRadar Consulting, said: “Commercial buyers are still waiting for more details — whether China will reduce the tariff on U.S. soybeans from 20 per cent to 10 per cent, or remove it entirely.”

“If the tariff is not completely lifted, commercial buyers will have little incentive to purchase U.S. soybeans,” he said.

Crops a bargaining chip

China, the world’s biggest soybean buyer and the top market for U.S. farmers, had turned its vast appetite for U.S. crops into a powerful trade war bargaining chip.

Facing import duties of 23 per cent on soybeans after rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs, Chinese buyers largely shunned the U.S. autumn harvest, turning instead to South American supplies.

The drop in Chinese demand has cost U.S. farmers – a key pillar of Trump’s political base – billions of dollars in lost sales.

Since the trade war of the first Trump administration, China has diversified its sources of soybean imports. In 2024, China bought roughly 20 per cent of its soybeans from the United States, down from 41 per cent in 2016, customs data shows.

— Reporting by David Lawder in Chicago; Andrea Shalal, Daniel Burns and Leah Douglas in Washington, Maiya Keidan in Toronto and Ella Cao in Beijing.

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The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency began collecting the higher tariffs of 10 per cent to 50 per cent at today after weeks of suspense over Trump’s final tariff rates and frantic negotiations with countries seeking to lower them.

The leaders of Brazil and India vowed not to be cowed by Trump’s hardline bargaining position, even while their negotiators sought a reprieve from the highest tariff levels.

The new rates will test Trump’s strategy for shrinking U.S. trade deficits without causing massive disruptions to global supply chains or provoking higher inflation and stiff retaliation from trading partners.

‘Billions’ in tariff revenue

After unveiling his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, Trump has frequently modified his plans, slapping much higher rates on imports from some countries, including 50 per cent for goods from Brazil, 39 per cent from Switzerland, 35 per cent from Canada and 25 per cent from India. He announced on Wednesday a separate 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods, to be imposed in 21 days, over India’s purchases of Russian oil.

“BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, LARGELY FROM COUNTRIES THAT HAVE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THE UNITED STATES FOR MANY YEARS, LAUGHING ALL THE WAY, WILL START FLOWING INTO THE USA,” Trump said on Truth Social just ahead of the tariff deadline.

Tariffs are ultimately paid by companies importing the goods, and passed on in full or in part to consumers of end products.

Trump’s top trade negotiator, Jamieson Greer, said the U.S. was working to reverse decades of policies that had weakened U.S. manufacturing capacity and workforce, and that many other countries shared concerns about macroeconomic imbalances.

“The rules of international trade cannot be a suicide pact,” he wrote in a column published by the New York Times.

“By imposing tariffs to rebalance the trade deficit and negotiating significant reforms that form the basis of a new international system, the United States has shown bold leadership,” Greer said.

A new equilibrium

Eight major trading partners accounting for about 40 per cent of U.S. trade flows have reached framework deals for trade and investment concessions to Trump, including the European Union, Japan and South Korea, reducing their base tariff rates to 15 per cent.

Britain won a 10 per cent rate, while Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines secured rate reductions to 19 per cent or 20 per cent.

“There’ll be some supply chain rearrangement. There’ll be a new equilibrium. Prices here will go up, but it’ll take a while for that to show up in a major way,” said William Reinsch, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Countries with punishingly high duties, such as India and Canada, “will continue to scramble around trying to fix this,” he added.

Switzerland’s government was to hold an emergency meeting on Thursday after President Karin Keller-Sutter returned home empty-handed from an 11th-hour trip to Washington aimed at averting the crippling U.S. import tariff on Swiss goods.

Brazil, India defiant

A last-minute attempt by South Africa to improve its offer in exchange for a lower tariff rate also failed. The two countries’ trade negotiating teams will have more talks, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said.

Vietnam said on Thursday it will continue talks with the U.S. as it seeks to lower tariffs further still after negotiating a reduction to 20 per cent from the 46 per cent duty Trump slapped on the Southeast Asian country in April.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Reuters on Wednesday he wouldn’t humiliate himself by seeking a phone call with Trump even as he said his government would continue cabinet-level talks to lower a 50 per cent tariff rate.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was similarly defiant, saying he would not compromise the interests of the country’s farmers.

There were also signs that some countries were rallying together to confront Trump, with Brazil’s Lula saying he would call the leaders of India and China to discuss a joint BRICS response to tariffs.

India said on Wednesday that Modi will visit China for the first time in seven years.

Revenues, price hikes

U.S. import taxes are one part of a multilayered tariff strategy that includes national security-based sectoral tariffs on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, autos, steel, aluminum, copper, lumber and other goods. Trump said on Wednesday the microchip duties could reach 100 per cent.

China is on a separate tariff track and will face a potential tariff increase on August 12 unless Trump approves an extension of a prior truce. He has said he may impose additional tariffs over China’s purchases of Russian oil as he seeks to pressure Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine.

Trump has touted a vast increase in federal revenues from his import tax collections, with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying on Fox Business Network on Thursday that he expected revenue from tariffs to reach $50 billion a month (C$68.7 billion).

The move will drive average U.S. tariff rates to around 20 per cent, the highest in a century and up from 2.5 per cent when Trump took office in January, the Atlantic Institute estimates.

Commerce Department data released last week showed more evidence that tariffs were driving up U.S. prices, including for recreational goods and motor vehicles, while costs are mounting for companies, including bellwethers Caterpillar, Marriott, Molson Coors and Yum Brands.

Toyota on Thursday said it expected a hit of nearly $10 billion (C$13.7 billion) from tariffs on cars imported into the U.S. as it cut its full-year profit forecast by 16 per cent.

But other Japanese companies such as Sony and Honda said they now expected a smaller impact on profits after Japan agreed a bilateral deal with Washington to lower tariffs.

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Washington | Reuters—U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly cut off trade talks with Canada on Friday over its tax targeting U.S. technology firms, saying that it was a “blatant attack” and that he would set a new tariff rate on Canadian goods within the next week.

The move plunges U.S.-Canada relations back into chaos after a period of relative calm that included a cordial G7 meeting in mid-June where Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed to wrap up a new economic agreement within 30 days.

It also came just hours after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent struck an upbeat tone on trade, touting progress had been made with China on reviving the flow of critical minerals for the U.S. manufacturing sector and in other key tariff negotiations.

The often-chaotic rollout of Trump’s import levies since his return to office this year has frequently whipsawed financial markets, and have begun to weigh on consumer spending, the bedrock of the U.S. economy.

U.S. stocks were briefly batted lower by his broadside against Canada, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq managed to close out the week at record highs.

Trump’s action comes ahead of Canada’s plans to begin collecting on Monday a previously enacted digital services tax on U.S. technology firms, including Amazon, Meta, Alphabet’s Google and Apple, among others.

The tax is three per cent of the digital services revenue a firm takes in from Canadian users above $20 million in a calendar year, and payments will be retroactive to 2022.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social media platform, called the tax “a direct and blatant attack on our country” and said Canada was a “very difficult country to TRADE with.”

“Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,” Trump said. “We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven-day period.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said that the negotiations with Canada would not resume “until they straighten out their act,” adding that the U.S. holds “such power over Canada.”

Canada is the second-largest U.S. trading partner after Mexico, and the largest buyer of U.S exports. It bought $349.4 billion (C$478.0 billion) of U.S. goods last year and exported $412.7 billion (C$564.6 billion) to the U.S., according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Carney’s office responded to Trump’s announcement by saying: “The Canadian government will continue to engage in these complex negotiations with the United States in the best interests of Canadian workers and businesses.”

Bessent sought to downplay the U.S.-Canadian dispute in a CNBC interview, saying U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would likely open a Section 301 probe into Canada’s digital tax that would clear the way for tariff retaliation in the amount of harm to U.S. firms, which he said was roughly $2 billion.

The U.S. has prepared similar retaliation against European countries that have imposed digital taxes. A USTR spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

‘Wrapped up by Labour Day’

Earlier on Friday, Bessent said the Trump administration’s various trade deals with other countries could be done by the Sept. 1 Labour Day holiday, citing talks with 18 top trade partners and another revision to a deal with China to reopen the flow of rare earth minerals and magnets.

After a week where tariffs took a back seat to the U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and the massive tax and spending bill in the U.S. Congress, the Trump administration’s trade negotiations have picked up.

The United States sent a new proposal to the European Union on Thursday and India sent a delegation to Washington for more talks.

“So we have countries approaching us with very good deals,” Bessent said on Fox Business Network.

“We have 18 important trading partners. … If we can ink 10 or 12 of the important 18, there are another important 20 relationships, then I think we could have trade wrapped up by Labour Day,” Bessent said.

He did not mention any changes to a July 9 deadline for countries to reach deals with the United States or see tariffs spike higher, but Trump said at the White House that he could extend the tariff deadline or “make it shorter.”

Trump said that he would notify countries of their tariff rates within the next week and a half, adding: “I’d like to just send letters out to everybody: Congratulations. You’re paying 25 per cent.”

New U.S.-China export revisions

Bessent said the United States and China had resolved issues surrounding shipments of Chinese rare earth minerals and magnets to the U.S., further modifying a deal reached in May in Geneva.

As part of its retaliation against new U.S. tariffs, China suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, upending supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

During U.S.-China talks in May in Geneva, Beijing committed to removing the measures imposed since April 2, but those critical materials were not moving as fast as agreed, Bessent said, so the U.S. put countermeasures in place.

“I am confident now that … as agreed, the magnets will flow,” Bessent said, adding that these materials would go to U.S. firms that had received them previously on a regular basis. He later said that the U.S. would begin shipping withheld materials to China when the rare earths shipments resumed.

China’s Commerce Ministry said on Friday the two countries have confirmed details on the framework of implementing the Geneva trade talks consensus. It said China will approve export applications of controlled items in accordance with the law. It did not mention rare earths.

Trump administration officials also held trade talks on Friday with India and Japan, two other countries in advanced negotiations with the U.S.

The Japanese government said in a statement that the two sides will continue to work to “reach an agreement that benefits both Japan and the United States.”

–Reporting by David Lawder, Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Promit Mukherjee and David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Nathan Layne in New York and Manoj Kumar in New Delhi.

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For more tariff coverage, visit the Western Producer’s tariff page

U.S. stocks rallied on hopes that the two countries might lower the steep trade barriers they have erected over the past month, though there was no sign that negotiations might start anytime soon.

Soybean futures also jumped, reaching two-month highs by midday Wednesday.

“Some of the bullish undertone behind soybeans is related to easing concerns over the China/U.S. tariff spat, although if any deal gets done, China is already done buying U.S. soybeans,” said Terry Reilly, senior agricultural strategist at Marex.

He added that soybean futures received some support from technical buying.

Tariffs must come down for talks to proceed

Bessent said the tariffs—145 per cent on Chinese products and 125 per cent on U.S. products—would have to come down before trade talks can proceed, but said Trump would not make that move unilaterally.

“Neither side believes that these are sustainable levels. As I said yesterday, this is the equivalent of an embargo and a break between the two countries in trade does not suit anyone’s interest,” Bessent told reporters.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House is considering cutting tariff levels to as low as 50 per cent on Chinese imports in a bid to lower tensions. A White House spokesperson dismissed any reports as “pure speculation” and said news on tariffs would come from Trump himself.

“We are going to have a fair deal with China,” Trump told reporters, but did not outline any specifics.

The tariff levels outlined in the Journal report would likely still be high enough to deter a significant chunk of trade between the world’s two largest economies. German shipper Hapag-Lloyd said Wednesday that 30 per cent of its U.S.-bound shipments from China have been cancelled.

Separate talks between the two countries over tackling the fentanyl epidemic have not yielded results so far, sources say.

Bessent said the third quarter of this year is a “reasonable estimate” for achieving clarity on the ultimate level of Trump’s tariffs.

Other countries looking to negotiate

In addition to the steep tariffs on China, Trump has also imposed a blanket 10 per cent tariff on all other U.S. imports and higher duties on steel, aluminum and autos. He has suspended targeted tariffs on dozens of other countries until July 9 and floated additional industry-specific levies on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. That has roiled financial markets and raised fears of recession.

The European Union, which Trump has threatened with 20 per cent tariffs, would respond with countertariffs if it cannot reach a deal with the United States before the July 9 deadline, economy minister Valdis Dombrovskis said on Wednesday. He said the 27-member trade bloc has offered to buy more liquid natural gas from the United States and reduce tariffs on certain goods.

Other countries are looking to negotiate as well. Vietnam’s trade minister spoke to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Wednesday, state media reported.

The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday the tariffs will slow growth and push debt higher across the globe. S&P Global found that U.S. business activity slowed to a 16-month low in April while prices charged for goods and services soared.

—Reporting by Andy Sullivan

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“For Canada and Mexico, the existing fentanyl/migration … orders remain in effect, and are unaffected by this order,” the White House fact sheet said.

“This means USMCA (U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement) compliant goods will continue to see a 0% tariff, non-USMCA compliant goods will see a 25% tariff, and non-USMCA compliant energy and potash will see a 10% tariff. In the event the existing fentanyl/migration … orders are terminated, USMCA compliant goods would continue to receive preferential treatment, while non-USMCA compliant goods would be subject to a 12% reciprocal tariff.”

Widespread 10 per cent tariffs

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would impose a 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports to the United States and higher duties on dozens of the country’s biggest trading partners.

Trading partners are expected to respond with countermeasures of their own that could lead to dramatically higher prices for everything from bicycles to wine. U.S. stock futures sank following his announcement.

“It’s our declaration of independence,” Trump said at an event in the White House Rose Garden.

Trump displayed a poster that listed reciprocal tariffs, including 34 per cent on China and 20 per cent on the European Union, as a response to duties put on U.S. goods.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said those penalties will take effect on April 9 and will apply to about 60 countries in all.

The baseline 10 per cent tariff will take effect on Saturday, the official said.

Following his remarks, Trump signed an order to remove a “de minimis” tariff exemption on low-cost products. Trump is also planning other tariffs targeting semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and potentially critical minerals, the official said.

Trump’s barrage of penalties has rattled financial markets and businesses that have relied on trading arrangements that have been in place since the middle of last century.

Auto tariffs to take effect

The administration has said the new tariffs will take effect immediately after Trump announces them, though it has not yet published the official notice required for enforcement.

The administration, however, did publish an official notice that a separate set of tariffs on auto imports that Trump announced last week will take effect starting on April 3.

Trump has already imposed 20 per cent duties on all imports from China and 25 per cent duties on steel and aluminum and extended them to nearly $150 billion worth of downstream products.

His advisers say the tariffs will return strategically vital manufacturing capabilities to the United States.

Outside economists have warned that tariffs could slow the global economy, raise the risk of recession, and increase living costs for the average U.S. family by thousands of dollars. Businesses have complained that Trump’s barrage of threats has made it difficult to plan their operations.

Tariff concerns have already slowed manufacturing activity across the globe, while also spurring sales of autos and other imported products as consumers rush to make purchases before prices rise.

Financial markets were volatile as investors awaited Trump’s announcement. U.S. stocks have erased nearly $5 trillion of value since February.

— Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland

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