Trump's New Tariff Plan & A Three-Sixty Degree Turn

Sheikh Tausif Ahmed

​G7 summit, a global meeting of the leaders of the seven most economically advanced nations, this year saw US president Donald Trump flip over tariffs.
Before the summit even began, Trump on a controversial move, decided to slap a whooping 25% tariff on steel & 10% tariff on aluminium productimportsfromCanada, Mexico & EU countries. As the NAFTA deal talks are getting lengthier &talks with EU are not making enough progress, the Trump administration put up a strategy to hardball the allies by imposing tariffs. Which surely didn’t go well with the concerned countries and there’s talk of retaliatory measures.
Here comes the twist! As Business Insider reports, Trump during a press conference at the G7 summit this year, proposed a trade utopia, where there will be no tariffs, no barriers, no subsidies. The announcement startled the leaders of the participating countries and they questioned the integrity of the announcement.
“No tariffs, no barriers, that's the way it should be," Trump said. "And no subsides, I even said not tariffs."But he was cautious about his words. He added that, "We can't have an example where we're paying, the United States is paying, 270% - just can't have it - and when they send things into us you don't have that.” Indicating  no quick change of course on those tariffs.

​Surprisingly, the job market in the US is about to suffer a huge blow. Trade Partnership Worldwide LLC, a Washington based firm predicted, this tariff could leave 400,000 people jobless. Some jobs will be created, but the loss of jobs will be many times more than that.
The international trade is already taking a hit. There’s a surge in steel imports at the EU markets. To counter this situation, the countries are thinking on a plan to put tariff on steel import. But economists fear a domino effect, where other countries will take the similar measure & leave the market lifeless. There are talks of retaliatory tariffs on US products. Canada put a C$ 16.5 billion worth of tariff on US products.
While it is unclear where Trump is going with these fairly contradictory statements, it is clear enough that the tariffs are not going away soon. Even if there were a  world where there’s no tariff or barriers on trade, America would always have to come first there. Trump & his policies are creating distance between nations & ensuing trade wars, which is not healthy for the world economy.

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Sheikh Tausif Ahmed

​Tausif is a first year student of economics at Dhaka University and is trying to survive through economics.