President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause on new tariffs for most countries and a steep increase to tariffs on China.
The 125% tariff rate on China comes after China retaliated in an escalating trade war between the two largest economies in the world.
For most other countries, a 10% tariff remains in place, but higher tariffs were paused just hours after they went into effect, causing global stock markets to shoot back up after a historic plunge.
Democracy Now! speaks to two economists, Nancy Qian and Joseph Stiglitz, about the “chaos” of the week since Trump’s initial unveiling of his tariff plan on 2 April, which he termed “Liberation Day”.
There is “no economic theory behind what he is doing,” says Stiglitz. He calls Trump a “schoolyard bully” who is upending international markets based on a flawed understanding of the role of trade deficits and the feasibility of reintroducing manufacturing to the US economy.
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“We’ve just never seen anything like this before,” says Qian, who adds that China appears to be digging in for the long, drawn-out trade war that Trump has now ignited.
Produced by: Democracy Now!
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