Trump announces new US tariffs of at least 10% on all imports

After holding the global economy in thrall, issuing erratic tariff threats and undercutting decades-old alliances, US President Donald Trump imposed tit-for-tat reciprocal import tariffs of at least 10 per cent on Wednesday on broad swathes of the planet.

“We will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of cheating”, he said at a White House event, announcing that “we will charge them approximately half of what they have been charging us. So the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal”.

China will imposed nearly 34 per cent tariffs, while the European Union imports will be levied 20 per cent duties.

Trump set the Wednesday deadline for the announcement following his vow to impose reciprocal tariffs on any country whose import taxes were on average higher than those levied by the US.

More to follow...