Trump launches historic global trade war against 185 countries including Pakistan

The latest round of U.S. trade tariffs unveiled on Wednesday will sap yet more vigour from a world economy barely recovered from the post-pandemic inflation surge, weighed down by record debt and unnerved by geopolitical strife.

Depending on how President Donald Trump and leaders of other nations proceed now, it may also go down as a turning point for a globalised system that until now had taken for granted the strength and reliability of America, its largest component.

“Trump’s tariffs carry the risk of destroying the global free trade order the United States itself has spear-headed since the Second World War,” said Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute.

But in coming months it will be the plain and simple price-hiking – and therefore demand-dampening – effects of new levies applied to thousands of goods bought and sold by consumers and businesses across the planet that will prevail.

“I see it as a drift of the U.S. and global economy towards worse performance, more uncertainty and possibly heading towards something we could call a global recession,” said Antonio Fatas, macroeconomist at the INSEAD business school in France.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said he would impose a 10% baseline tariff on all imports and held up a chart showing higher duties on some of the country’s biggest trading partners, including 34% on China and 20% on the European Union.