World economies reel from Donald Trump's tariffs punch
Image: Andrej Ivanov / AFP
Global markets reeled on Friday after President Donald Trump's tariffs barrage against nearly all US trading partners as governments looked down the barrel of a seven-day deadline before higher duties take effect.
Stock markets in Hong Kong, London, and New York slumped as they digested the turmoil, while weak US employment data added to worries.
Trump announced late on Thursday that dozens of economies, including the European Union, will face new tariff rates of between 10 and 41 percent.
However, implementation will be on August 7 rather than Friday as previously announced, the White House said. This gives governments a window to rush to strike deals with Washington setting more favorable conditions.
South Africa has been hit with a 30% tariff. However, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday that talks between South African and US officials are continuing and that his government had submitted a Framework Deal that aims to enhance mutually beneficial trade and investment relations. The government is also finalising a package to support companies that are vulnerable to the reciprocal tariffs,
US neighbour Canada, one of the biggest US trade partners, was hit with 35 percent levies, up from 25 percent, effective Friday - but with wide-ranging, current exemptions remaining in place.
The tariffs are a demonstration of raw economic power that Trump sees putting US exporters in a stronger position, while encouraging domestic manufacturing by keeping out foreign imports.
But the muscular approach has raised fears of inflation and other economic fallout in the world's biggest economy.
Trump's actions come as debate rages over how best to steer the US economy, with the Federal Reserve this week deciding to keep interest rates unchanged, despite massive political pressure from the White House to cut.
Data on Friday showed US job growth missing expectations for July, while unemployment ticked up to 4.2 percent from 4.1 percent.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 dropped 1.6 percent, while the Nasdaq tumbled 2.2 percent. Political goals
Trump raised duties on around 70 economies, from a current 10 percent level imposed in April when he unleashed "reciprocal" tariffs, citing unfair trade practices.
The new, steeper levels listed in an executive order vary by trading partner. Any goods "transshipped" through other jurisdictions to avoid US duties would be hit with an additional 40 percent tariff, the order said.
But Trump's duties also have a distinctly political flavor, with the president using separate tariffs to pressure Brazil to drop the trial of his far-right ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro.
He also warned of trade consequences for Canada, which faces a different set of duties, after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.
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In targeting Canada, the White House cited its failure to "cooperate in curbing the ongoing flood of fentanyl and other illicit drugs" - although Canada is not a major source of illegal narcotics.
By contrast, Trump gave more time to Mexico, delaying for 90 days a threat to increase its tariffs from 25 percent to 30 percent.
But exemptions remain for a wide range of Canadian and Mexican goods entering the United States under an existing North American trade pact.
Carney said his government was "disappointed" with the latest rates hike but noted that with exclusions, the US average tariff on Canadian goods remains one of the lowest among US trading partners. 'Tears up' rule book
With questions hanging over the effectiveness of bilateral trade deals struck - including with the EU and Japan - the outcome of Trump's overall plan remains uncertain.
"No doubt about it - the executive order and related agreements concluded over the past few months tears up the trade rule book that has governed international trade since World War II," said Wendy Cutler, senior vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
On Friday, Trump said he would consider distributing a tariff "dividend" to Americans.
Notably excluded from Friday's drama was China, which is in the midst of negotiations with the United States.
Washington and Beijing at one point brought tit-for-tat tariffs to triple-digit levels, but have agreed to temporarily lower these duties and are working to extend their truce.
Those who managed to strike deals with Washington to avert steeper threatened levies included Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, and the European Union.
Among other tariff levels adjusted in Trump's latest order, Switzerland now faces a higher 39 percent duty.
AFP
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Daily Maverick
4 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Global pressure forces Israel to allow aid into Gaza, but UN says it's not enough to prevent famine
After months of denying starvation and blaming Hamas, Israel is finally allowing some aid into Gaza. But the flow is limited, and aid groups say it barely scratches the surface of the unfolding famine. As the images from Gaza of skeletal, starving Palestinian babies – amid reports of rising deaths from starvation and growing cases of malnutrition – shock the world, international pressure has forced Israel to start allowing a trickle of aid into Gaza, amounts which the UN reports are insufficient to prevent the famine. Furthermore, an increasing number of reports from unexpected sources, including those involved in the questionable aid delivery on the ground, are disputing Israel's version of events, which has tried to cast the blame on Hamas and the UN. In addition to repeatedly denying that they deliberately target Palestinian civilians, the Israeli authorities have also systematically denied that there is either starvation in Gaza or any food shortages. Instead, they have blamed Hamas for looting aid convoys and the UN for refusing to cooperate with the much-discredited Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private security contractor manned by former US soldiers and security personnel in close coordination with the Israeli government. The UN says the GHF is not delivering the limited amounts of food it distributes effectively and neither does the distribution meet minimum humanitarian levels. The GHF operates only four aid distribution centres in southern Gaza as opposed to the previous 400 centres run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which covered the entire coastal territory. Furthermore, the GHF, together with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) encircling the GHF distribution points, has killed more than 1,000 Gazans as they desperately tried to get aid – in highly disputed circumstances. UN World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain, wife of the late Republican senator John McCain, has been working on the ground. She denied that Hamas has been looting aid convoys in Gaza. The New York Times, which has been accused of being biased towards Israel, interviewed several anonymous IDF officials who said in a recent article there was no systematic looting of Gaza aid by Hamas and the UN aid distribution system was the most effective. Israel stopped UNRWA from delivering aid to Gaza and the West Bank after claiming that it was involved in the Hamas attack on southern Israel in October 2023. After an investigation by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services, it was established that out of a Gaza UNRWA staff of 13,000, only a few were found to be possibly involved in the attack, but Israel had not provided sufficient evidence to pursue some of those possibly involved. Critics say the real reason Tel Aviv has cracked down on UNRWA is the organisation's support of Palestinian rights and its economic, educational and medical support for Palestinian refugees, thereby making it hard for Israel to bury the Palestinian cause. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) recently completed an investigation into the attacks on aid convoys in Gaza and came to a similar conclusion to the The New York Times report. The analysis found that at least 44 of the 156 incidents where aid supplies were reported stolen or lost were 'either directly or indirectly' the result of Israeli military actions. More damning, however, have been statements by US security personnel directly working with the GHF on the ground in Gaza. Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Aguilar, a former US special forces veteran, was recruited to work for the GHF. He told the BBC he witnessed the IDF shooting at crowds of Palestinians, firing a main tank round into a car carrying civilians and firing mortars at crowds of hungry people waiting for food. 'In my entire career I have never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed starving population. I've never witnessed that in all the places I've been deployed to war, until I was in Gaza at the hands of the IDF and US contractors,' said Aguilar. 'Without question I witnessed war crimes by the [IDF], without a doubt. Using artillery rounds, mortar rounds, tank rounds into unarmed civilians is a war crime.' Aguilar is not the first GHF employee to criticise its operations. Three weeks ago, another GHF employee, a security guard, told the BBC he witnessed colleagues opening fire on hungry Palestinian civilians who had posed no threat. There have been regular reports over the months of armed groups in Gaza opposed to Hamas operating under the watchful surveillance of the Israeli security forces, attacking and looting aid convoys. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently admitted to Israel arming and supporting criminal gangs accused of ties with Jihadist groups and involved in the looting of aid convoys in Gaza as a bulwark against Hamas, arguing that they were 'saving the lives of Israeli soldiers'. Over the past almost 22 months of the conflict, Israel has repeatedly targeted aid convoys and aid premises, killing more than 400 aid workers and more than 1,300 health workers. One of the more notorious incidents involving international staff was Israel's targeting of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) in April 2024, in which seven international and local staff members were killed. Although Israel claimed it was a mistake, WCK founder José Andrés said it was not a mistake, but a systematic targeting. Israel has also claimed not to target civilians and that those inadvertently killed were used by Hamas as human shields. However, videos and reports have come out of Israeli soldiers deliberately using Palestinian civilians as human shields systematically not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank over the years. British surgeon Dr Nick Maynard said that while working in Gaza he noticed a pattern of Israeli snipers not only targeting Palestinian civilians deliberately but also targeting different parts of teenage boys over different days. This followed earlier reports by other foreign doctors in Gaza, who said Israeli quadcopter drones targeted injured children lying on the ground. Other doctors said snipers had shot at the heads and hearts of children. US surgeon Dr Mark Perlmutter spent several weeks in Gaza in 2024. He said the people he treated were civilians and he hadn't seen one combatant in the Nasser Hospital where he worked. The doctor went on to claim that Israeli snipers were deliberately shooting children in Gaza, France 24 reported. 'No child gets shot twice by mistake,' he said. 'Metadata proves it was real,' Perlmutter added, referencing a recent article in the The New York Times detailing the harrowing experiences of 65 doctors in Gaza such as himself, who commented on the precise shots aimed at hearts and heads. In the interim two leading Israeli rights groups have concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, joining other . DM
Daily Maverick
4 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
The Epstein files — truth, alternative facts, conspiracies and the further degradation of US politics
The Epstein scandal and Donald Trump's place in it — whichever way it is ultimately adjudicated — will have a further corrosive effect on US political life. To prepare properly for braving the swamp of rumour, speculation and all the bog-standard conspiracy thinking swirling around the actions of the late Jeffrey Epstein and the still breathing Donald Trump, I've donned a hazmat suit, strapped on some fisherman's waders and added a diver's closed oxygen breathing apparatus to explore safely this very bigly dismal swamp. In thinking about this piece, I realise I am not specifically looking for the ugly truths about Epstein's behaviour in his messy affairs. Rather, regardless of how all the pieces fit together in their sleaziness, what I want to explore here is what this epic scandal and typical Trump-style crisis says about the contemporary US political fever swamp. Trump already has, after all, had a lifetime of sex-related scandals trailing behind him, rather like an unrolled strip of toilet tissue stuck to his shoe as he walks along. This Epstein/Trump scandal reminds me of one of my favourite novels, 'All the King's Men' by Robert Penn Warren. The book describes the epic rise and vertiginous fall of a politician from the Deep South who attains great political power but is brought down by the brother of a woman he has taken as his mistress. The story reveals the overlapping influences of political power, money, and sex, much like a real-life Venn diagram — and how it almost inevitably ends in tragedy. This novel has spawned two film adaptations, featuring an extraordinary speech in which the protagonist, Willie Stark, first reveals his political genius. (Watch Broderick Crawford's Oscar-winning portrayal of Stark here.) To return directly to the Epstein/Trump scandal, even without digging into its moral depths, our question here is: What is it about this most recent conspiracy of silence that resonates with many Americans, and how does it fit into the larger tapestry of 'conspiracism'? (A neologism first used in the 1980s, which fits perfectly with what we are dealing with here.) In defining this particular madness, we start, beyond the late Epstein, with the willingness and even eagerness by some to embrace and even preach the gospel about scandals like this one, and all the tendrils that extend outward from it. Unlike some societies that may still cling to a more respectful approach towards politicians and leaders, there is and has long been a deep-seated presumption among many Americans that politicians lie. All of them; every single one of them. It is their genetic predisposition. But that idea is simultaneously held in conjunction with another idea: that the real truth is out there, somewhere, hidden, but just barely discernible. There are courageous souls (QAnon, anyone?) who manage to uncover and then reveal this truth to the rest of us. Such people are real-life versions of those fictional characters Scully and Mulder from the long-running television series 'The X-Files'. Beyond that, there is also a view, similarly reflected in novels and films, along with 'The X-Files', that there really are conspiracies — deep, devastating ones — that truth-seekers and truth-tellers are determined to uncover and then reveal to the rest of us sheeple. The complication, of course, is that while much of this is just fevered nonsense, sometimes there really are conspiracies. Back in the 1920s in the US there really was a Teapot Dome scandal that intertwined money and political influence and could have brought down a president, save for the fact that he conveniently died of food poisoning (or perhaps at the hand of a wife tired of his extramarital affair). Earlier, there really was a plot to kill Abraham Lincoln and other senior officials at the end of the Civil War. And, yes, there really was a conspiracy to assassinate the heir to the Habsburg dynasty in 1914, thus provoking the collapse of the tottering Austro-Hungarian Empire. Watergate Then, of course, there really was an organised conspiracy among senior officials to cover up their original crime of perpetuating the break-in of the Democratic Party campaign headquarters — and then subsequent, follow-on conspiracies to obscure their initial cover-up. Of course, in South Africa, what we call Guptagate (every scandal now gets the suffix 'gate', after the Watergate Hotel and offices where the Nixon-era break-in took place) was certainly real as well. Events such as these make for fertile ground to nurture beliefs that conspiracies are real and commonplace, and that those who carry them out are secretly manipulating what we think we know about our world. We don't even need The Matrix film franchise to convince us that secret manipulations of reality mask deeper truths. In recent years, especially with the ascendancy of social media, alternative news channels and independent podcasters, the content is often about noxious conspiracies and cover-ups. Millions of people eagerly consume this faux information, precisely because they are preconditioned to suspend their critical faculties and embrace such ideas. That is tied together with an innate scepticism about government more generally that has become prevalent. The historian Richard Hofstadter, back in 1964, wrote one of the most incisive essays on US political life in the then mighty Harpers magazine, defining 'The Paranoid Style in American Politics', saying: 'American politics has often been an arena for angry minds. In recent years, we have seen angry minds at work mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated in the Goldwater movement how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. But, behind this, I believe there is a style of mind that is far from new and that is not necessarily right-wing. I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind … [but] the idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant.' Hofstadter concludes: 'In American experience ethnic and religious conflict have plainly been a major focus for militant and suspicious minds of this sort, but class conflicts also can mobilise such energies…. The situation becomes worse when the representatives of a particular social interest—perhaps because of the very unrealistic and unrealizable nature of its demands—are shut out of the political process. Having no access to political bargaining or the making of decisions, they find their original conception that the world of power is sinister and malicious fully confirmed.' Operating concurrently with these phenomena, Trump and those associated with him have, for decades, practised making use of such ideas and techniques — and the purveying of those so-called alternative facts. Back in the 1980s, echoing the tutelage by his mentor, that 'junkyard dog' of a lawyer, Roy Cohn, Trump campaigned for the prosecution of the 'Central Park Five', young men falsely accused of the gang rape of a young woman in a municipal swimming pool. His campaign played off the racial animosities of an angry, divided city. Years later, as he prepped to campaign for election to the presidency, he hammered away at the lie that Barack Hussein Obama (the Hussein was always in there for obvious reasons) was born in Africa (and thus ineligible to serve as president); that Obama's academic background was purposely obscured; and that there was a 'deep state' trying to bring him down — that it was all a 'witch hunt'. Later, when he lost his 2016 re-election bid, the result, according to Trump, was a hoax stemming from a fraudulent election. In the process, these constantly repeated charges further undermined support for any national understanding about governance. Pizzagate While Trump did not, himself, specifically purvey the truly mad notion that there was a gigantic conspiracy to kidnap young children and stash them in the basement of a well-known pizzeria in Washington, DC, for orgies and cannibalistic rites, his breaking down of the normal boundaries allowed this conspiracy theory to flourish like black mould in a damp basement. The ground has become very fertile for this kind of nonsense as the mechanisms and techniques have now been refined to reach millions and have become mutually reinforcing. With the current Epstein tangle, Trump remains enmeshed in the scandal precisely because some of the facts of their long-term relationship are true — and are not alternative facts — and are not being denied. Trump and Epstein were buddies trawling the clubs in the 1980s, partying together, and embracing their public status as rich-as-Croesus young masters of the universe, as Tom Wolfe would have described them. And then there were the women. The darker side of Epstein's financial success was almost a Ponzi scheme reliant upon onward recommendations by those in the know to others who wanted to participate in the fountain of wealth Epstein was presumably generating. And the women were always there — and in Epstein's case, in particular — his pursuit of women 'on the younger side', as Trump himself had said. In this, Epstein was abetted by his one-time girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, heir to the troubled publisher Robert Maxwell. Ghislaine is now serving a 20-year sentence for those efforts. That Epstein died in prison in a highly monitored cell, apparently by his own hand, has fed the belief there is much more to the story — and there must be a mountain of evidence of his crimes and all those who participated in his devilish parties at his Manhattan townhouse or his private Caribbean island. The Trump administration's attorney-general, Pam Bondi, has only fuelled the frenzy, announcing she had a mountain of Epstein material on her desk, including an elusive Epstein client list (clients of both his brokerage and his parties), and then awkwardly backtracking from such claims, only asking that judges release transcripts of the grand jury hearing into Epstein's activities. That client list has become a holy grail at the centre of a conspiracy keeping Epstein's depredations under wraps and all his tainted friends (presumably mostly Democratic Party elites?) safe from suspicion and infamy. Reshaping But then, every time Trump has tried to extricate himself from the shadowy aspects of Epstein's life, Trump has managed to muddy the waters. Most recently this came through reshaping the reason for the end of their relationship. First, it had been smirking that Epstein had had the poor taste to pursue women who were under the age of consent; now he has alleged the real reason for their breakup was because Epstein 'stole' some of the young women working at Trump's Mar-a-Lago spa. Several things are immediately wrong with this newest picture. First of all, does Trump really want us to believe he knew the work histories of all of the hundreds of people working at that club? But there is also the astonishing argument that the young women concerned were somehow Trump's property to be stolen. Involuntary servitude has been illegal in the country since 1865, even in Florida. We are left with the complex response to the Trump/Epstein saga on the part of those who would otherwise take on board all of the conspiratorial thinking that helps underpin support for Trump from among his Maga followers. As the Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson wrote in The New York Times, just the other day, 'The Epstein story is so sad, so sordid and so completely off the traditional ideological spectrum that it has escaped the bonds of our usual right-left divides. Instead, it seems to be bringing together unconventional allies who share only a distaste for the establishment and a heartfelt belief that elites get to play by a different set of rules in our society today. It is this through line, a skepticism of elites and institutions, more than anything ideological that ties the fans of someone like Mr. [Joe] Rogan to the political project of Mr. Trump, and I believe this is why the Epstein case is called out as a 'line in the sand' — as Mr. Rogan termed it — when Iran and immigration policies are not. 'As right and left converge in their skepticism and with institutions of all kinds experiencing high levels of bipartisan distrust, 'nothing to see here; move along' simply doesn't cut it. Voters are hungry for transparency and accountability. Efforts to silence the calls to release the Epstein files have only focused more attention on the issue.' Will voters and supporters come to decide that Trump himself was a willing part of the sordid enterprise of female exploitation by Epstein (and finally deserves the infamy that comes from that)? Or, will they accept the idea that Trump is being ensnared by that hoary old devil, the deep state, to protect the crimes of others who disagree with the incumbent president? Or, will they ultimately fall back on the idea that, well, okay, all politicians lie, all politicians behave badly and presume to be above the law, and that Trump misbehaved, but what can you do with men? Whichever way the Epstein affair and Trump's part in it comes to be embraced will inevitably come to degrade yet further any public respect for the country's political process. If everyone is corrupt, then there are no real limits for behaviour. If only some people are held to account, then the privileged can get away with almost anything. And if every form of despicable behaviour must be punished, who will carry out such judgments? That ancient Roman question, Who will guard the guardians?, takes on a new and yet more complex life in a world of instantaneous social media, niche broadcasting and public speech that is delivered without restraint by its speakers. Nihilism will run free. DM
IOL News
5 hours ago
- IOL News
SA on the brink of ‘energy poverty', increases of 600% in recent years says expert
The alarming rise in electricity prices in South Africa in recent years is unsustainable and disproportionate to many citizens' income levels. Image: Freepik THE alarming rise in electricity prices in South Africa in recent years is unsustainable and disproportionate to many citizens' income levels. This is the view of energy expert, Professor Vally Padayachee, who was reflecting on the prices of electricity after Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa promised big changes to electricity prices in the coming months in efforts to address what he described as unsustainable prices. On April 1, Eskom implemented a tariff increase of 12.74 percent. This hike followed approval from the energy regulator and represents one of the most significant price adjustments in recent years. Padayachee said that the rising cost of electricity is concerning as it impacts not only household budgets but also the overall economy. "Increases of over approximately 600% in recent years are unsustainable and disproportionate to many citizens' income levels. Electricity, a public good, should arguably be like water, a fundamental right, accessible and affordable for all South Africans. "For the average South African household, rising electricity costs have become a serious financial concern. Many families find themselves allocating a growing portion of their income to energy bills, which can lead to difficult choices between essential services such as food, education, and healthcare. This financial strain can cause stress and adversely affect family life," he stated. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ramokgopa has agreed and reiterating comments he made last week, said that South Africa was on the brink of 'energy poverty'. Speaking amid the ANC National Executive Committee's meeting in Gauteng Ramokgopa said: 'Electricity is unaffordable. We cannot continue along this tariff path. We are getting into a situation here in the country with new dimensions of energy poverty. There are households there, as I speak to you, that will not be able to afford the cost of households are being forced to make choices between a loaf of bread and buying prepaid electricity units,' he said. To curb the effects of energy poverty, Padayachee said: "The rising costs of electricity calls for urgent structural reforms to the energy pricing model in South Africa. Policymakers must explore ways to stabilise prices for households and reduce the burden on vulnerable populations. There must be a concerted effort towards transitioning to a sustainable energy future that emphasises renewable energy sources. "By investing in sustainable energy technologies, the government can work towards reducing reliance on expensive fossil fuels, ultimately lowering electricity costs over the long term." Economist Dawie Roodt stated that electricity prices in South Africa are now among the highest in the world, making the country unattractive as an investment destination, which is having a detrimental impact on the economy. 'There was a time about 20 to 25 years ago when our electricity was among the cheapest in the world, but that is no longer the case; now, it is among the highest in the world,' he said. He stated that due to years of mismanagement, lack of investment, and outstanding debt from local consumers, Eskom is carrying a significant amount of debt. Leader of the eThekwini Ratepayers and Residents Association (ERRA), Ish Prahladh, echoed these concerns, stating, 'It is very true that the electricity tariff increases for ratepayers, residents, and businesses are definitely not sustainable. 'This overburdens all households and has a significant impact on businesses as well. There is a large population that is unemployed, and this is causing further unemployment because many small to medium-sized businesses are likely to shut down due to rising costs. 'High tariffs lead to increased living costs, including food prices, and have a ripple effect on the economy. Therefore, alternative solutions must be explored, such as solar power, to become more affordable for poorer and middle-income households. Solar power should be considered in a way that allows the government to subsidise it for all communities, making it more sustainable and helping to reduce electricity costs,' he said.
