Trump's tariffs come into full effect after he signs executive orders boosting coal production
11.44 CEST Trump tariffs kick in, spurring more market carnage
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I'll be bringing you all the latest news over the next few hours.
We start with news that president Donald Trump's new tariffs have gone into full effect today.
When Trump announced the latest round of tariffs on 2 April, he declared that the US would now tax nearly all of America's trading partners at a minimum of 10% – and impose steeper rates for countries that he says run trade surpluses with the US.
The 10% baseline had already gone into effect on Saturday. Trump's higher import tax rates on dozens of countries and territories took hold at midnight, Washington DC time, AP reported.
The steeper levies run as high as 50% – with that biggest rate landing on small economies that trade little with the US, including the African kingdom of Lesotho.
Some other rates include a tax of 47% on imports from Madagascar, 46% on Vietnam, 32% on Taiwan, 25% on South Korea, 24% on Japan and 20% on the European Union. Some of these new tariffs build on previous trade measures.
Trump last week announced a tariff of 34% on China, for example, which would come on top of 20% levies he imposed on the country earlier this year. He has since threatened to add an another 50% levy on Chinese goods in response to Beijing's recently promised retaliation. That would bring the combined total to 104% against China.
China said it will take 'resolute measures' to defend its trading rights, but gave no details on how it will respond.
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