Topics: Donald Trump, Money, News, Politics, US News, World News, Explained
An 'Armageddon' warning has been made following Donald Trump’s 'Liberation Day' tariffs announcement which saw him make the biggest change to trade in an entire century.
On Wednesday (2 April), Trump took to the Rose Garden of the White House to reveal his list of reciprocal tariffs he's set to impose on a number of nations across the globe.
The 78-year-old Republican began the eagerly-anticipated speech declaring: "We've been waiting for a long time, April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to 'Make America Wealthy Again'."
During the speech, the president showed a 'Reciprocal Tariffs' chart to the audience, where he revealed exactly what tariffs he planned on rolling out for each given country.
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"For years, hard-working American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense. But now it’s our turn to prosper," he claimed. "This will be the golden age of America. It’s coming back."
Tariffs are simply taxes placed on goods that are imported into a country.
It is the importers buying the goods who pay the tariffs meaning that, in the case of the US, American companies will be paying the increased taxes.
Ultimately, Trump states that the intent behind the tariffs is to protect US manufacturing and increase job opportunities by making foreign-made products less attractive.
However, these two main aims can take a considerable amount of time as US-based companies will first have to put in place the various infrastructure in order to produce their goods in the US.
This can result in customers paying higher costs for their goods as companies often put up their prices in order to compensate for tariffs.
Additionally, such tariffs can also have a detrimental impact on foreign countries as they make their products pricier and, therefore, harder to sell.
It's this exact issue which has led one expert to issue a warning that Trump's tariffs could spark an 'Armageddon-like' meltdown.
Speaking to the New York Post, Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, said after Trump announced the tariffs that it was 'worse than the worst case scenario'.
"The China and the Taiwan tariffs are the backbreakers and that will change the pricing of electronics and consumer goods in the US for years to come," he explained.
Ives added that he would 'expect a bloodbath in terms of the market reaction because it's much worse than expected'.
'The worries about more inflation and slower growth are going to be rampant' among investors, according to Ives, who added: "The new tariffs, especially in the automotive sector, are going to be Armageddon-like."
