By Best News 
The United States dealt a dramatic blow to the post-World War II global economic order it helped establish. Portraying his country as a victim of commercial exploitation, Donald Trump announced unprecedented tariffs on Wednesday, April 2. Speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House, before his assembled cabinet and autoworkers from Detroit, the president set his country on a path reminiscent of a fortress model – a relic from a world of tariffs and isolated economies. “Our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” the president said. According to him, this “Liberation Day” is a prerequisite for the renaissance of the American industrial base.
The US has not erected such barriers since the Hawley-Smoot tariffs of 1930, a few months after the 1929 crash. “Trump’s biggest tariff blitz yet sends a clear message to US and foreign companies alike: The era of globalization is over,” wrote the Wall Street Journal. Presented as a “declaration of economic independence,” this offensive against the whole world, announced long ago during the presidential campaign, is significant: 34% tariffs on Chinese imports (in addition to the 20% already imposed since January), 20% on those from the European Union, 32% on Taiwan and 24% on Japan. For the entire planet, a minimum levy of 10% is imposed. The magnitude of the announcement shook financial markets. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 3.1% in after-hours trading. When markets opened on Thursday, the CAC 40, the 40 leading stocks in the Paris index, dropped 2%.
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