Before the announcement of Trump’s customs duties, European scholarships in sharp decline – Liberation

The global economy in apnea. Asian and European scholarships have finished declining This Monday, March 31, with -4.04 % in Tokyo, -3 % in Seoul, -1.58 % in Paris and -1.33 % in Frankfurt. At Wall Street, the American reference index S&P 500, also in the red, has briefly reached its lowest since September. The result of an apprehension of the financial markets, which fear new customs duties on the products entering the United States, supposed to be announced Wednesday April 2 by Donald Trump, the date he qualified as « Day of Liberation ».

After steel and aluminum and before the automobile, the American president intends to go up a gear this week, revealing his customs duties « Converse ». These new customs barriers should in particular depend on the taxes that the countries concerned impose themselves on American products. The head of state maintains the vagueness a few days before the deadline, especially on the number of countries concerned.

« We would start with all countries, we will see », He sketched on Sunday, leaving the hypothesis that these new customs rights affect only a limited number of Washington business partners. The United States Minister of Finance, Scott Bessent, had expressed the possibility of targeting 15 % of nations, those which record recurring commercial imbalances to the detriment of Washington. But Donald Trump repeats that the whole world, especially the Allies of the United States, « Enjoy » of his country.

Suspended from this deadline, the countries regularly undergoing the thunderbolts of Donald Trump flip their response. Mexico City and Ottawa began to respond to the first new customs rights targeting them, the European Union promises to do the same. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the American president on Monday to « to reflect on » Again. « Cooperation is always preferable to confrontation », he argued.

Since his return to the White House in January, Donald Trump has already increased customs duties on products entering the United States. He targeted those who come from Chinapart of those from Mexican and Canadian neighbors, as steel and aluminum whatever their origin. As of April 3 at 5:01 am, French time, Washington also plans to impose 25 % additional taxes on foreign cars But also on spare parts used in the composition of vehicles assembled in the United States. Which could even affect the business of his ally Elon Musk, with a significant cost for assembling its tesla.

Prices will increase and depress the request, provides for the Fitch Agency, which has degraded its estimate of the number of new cars which will be sold in 2025 in the United States, to 16 million units (- 300,000 compared to its last projection), according to a research note published today. The fact that the United States is more important to export is an obsession with Donald Trump. It is the demonstration according to him that the other countries abuse access to the American market, without showing the same opening at home.

He considers that the barriers are not only customs, as in China or India, but also regulatory. It also targets the internal taxation of European states, by deeming the level of local VAT too high. « In the immediate future, one has the impression that Trump makes fun of whether his customs duties will increase the production costs of companies or prices for consumers », surprise this Monday The Nobel Prize in economics Paul Krugmanin a blog post.

American companies are in fog, he adds, because the customs policy of Donald Trump is subject to sudden reversals: “Build a factory that depends on imported spare parts, and Trump could cut your grass under your foot with new customs duties. Build a factory only profitable if customs duties remain in force, and it could go back and question everything ”. With the American tribune, nothing is certain.