President Donald Trump has launched tariff wars with nearly all of the United States’ trading partners. And there’s no end in sight.
Several new, sweeping taxes on goods from other countries are already here — and more took effect on Wednesday. Trump has promised higher rates for his latest and most severe volley of duties, which he calls “reciprocal” tariffs.
Trump on Tuesday signed executive orders aimed at boosting coal, a reliable but polluting energy source that has been declining for decades.
Trump used his emergency authority to allow some older coal-fired power plants set for retirement to keep producing electricity to meet rising U.S. power demand amid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence and electric cars.
The Republican president has long promised to boost what he calls “beautiful” coal to fire power plants and for other uses.
Here’s the latest:
‘China’s military has too large of a presence in the western hemisphere,’ Hegseth says
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth again put China at the center of U.S. priorities in the western hemisphere on Wednesday, one day after calling the world power a threat to the Panama Canal.
Speaking at a regional security conference in Panama City, Hegseth said that China-based companies were controlling land and critical infrastructure in strategic sectors.
“China’s military has too large of a presence in the western hemisphere,” Hegseth said. “Make no mistake, Beijing is investing and operating in this region for military advantage and unfair economic gain.”
He called on the region’s governments to work together to deter China and address threats posed by transnational drug cartels and mass immigration.
EU imposes new tariffs on $23B in US goods
European Union member states voted to approve the retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.
The tariffs will go into effect in stages, with some on April 15 and others on May 15 and Dec. 1. The EU executive commission didn’t immediately provide a list of the goods on Wednesday.
Members of the 27-country bloc repeated their preference for a negotiated deal to settle trade issues: “The EU considers U.S. tariffs unjustified and damaging, causing economic harm to both sides, as well as the global economy. The EU has stated its clear preference to find negotiated outcomes with the U.S., which would be balanced and mutually beneficial.”
The head of the EU’s executive commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has offered a zero-for-zero tariffs deal on industrial goods, including cars.
But Trump has said that’s not enough to satisfy U.S. concerns.
China uses WTO meeting to lash out at Trump’s tariffs
A Chinese envoy at a World Trade Organization council meeting on Wednesday said the U.S. tariffs infringed on the right of countries to develop, and noted that earthquake-hit Myanmar was facing an “exorbitant” 44% tariff and even an “uninhabited island, home only to penguins and seals” faced a 10% tariff.
The official said Trump’s tariffs contravened U.S. commitments under WTO rules, and the “so-called ‘reciprocal tariff’ has set the very architecture of the multilateral trading system ablaze.”
The Chinese diplomatic mission in Geneva provided a copy of the statement in the closed-door session to The Associated Press but declined to identify the speaker by name.
Contacted by the AP, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva declined to comment.
Trump promotes investing in US as antidote to higher tariffs
Trump says tariffs will be “ZERO” for companies that come back to America.
“This is a GREAT time to move your COMPANY into the United States of America,” the Republican president wrote on his social media site as he continues defending the sweeping global tariffs he announced last week that have since roiled the stock market.
U.S. stock futures were sinking again in premarket trading on Wednesday after massive U.S. tariffs against China kicked in overnight, followed by China retaliating with a huge tariff increase on U.S. imports.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to meet with Trump
Whitmer is in Washington to give a speech Wednesday on the economy and will meet with Trump at the White House in the afternoon, according to the governor’s spokesperson.
Whitmer is among a handful of Democratic governors who have spoken about finding ways to work with a Republican president who pushes policies they disagree with.
Whitmer and Trump also met at the White House last month.
Republicans are going public with their worries about Trump’s tariffs
Manufacturers struggling to make long-term plans. Farmers facing retaliation from Chinese buyers. U.S. households burdened with higher prices.
Republican senators are confronting the Trump administration with those worries and many more as they fret about the economic impact of the president’s sweeping tariff strategy that went into effect on Wednesday.
In a Senate hearing and interviews with reporters this week, Republican skepticism of Trump’s policies ran unusually high. While GOP lawmakers directed their concern at Trump’s aides and advisers — particularly U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer, who appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday — it still amounted to a rare break from a president they have otherwise championed.
Lawmakers had reason to worry: the stock market has been in a volatile tumble for days, and economists are warning that the plans could lead to a recession.
▶ Read more about Republican leaders’ reactions to Trump’s tariffs
US restores urgent food aid but not in Afghanistan and Yemen, where millions need it
The Trump administration has reversed sweeping cuts in emergency food aid to several nations while maintaining them in Afghanistan and Yemen, two of the world’s poorest and most war-ravaged countries, officials said Wednesday. The United States initially cut funding for projects in more than a dozen countries, part of a dramatic reduction of foreign aid led by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Aid officials warned the cuts would deny food to millions of people and end health programs for women and children.
The administration informed the World Food Program of its reversal on Tuesday, according to two U.N. officials.
The WFP said on Monday it had been notified that USAID was cutting funding to the U.N. agency’s emergency food program in 14 countries.
It was not immediately clear how many of those cutoffs still stood.
▶ Read more about the restoration of food aid
Trump administration halts $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell, $790 million for Northwestern
More than $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell University and around $790 million for Northwestern University have been frozen while the government investigates alleged civil rights violations at both schools, the White House says.
It’s part of a broader push to use government funding to get major academic institutions to comply with Trump’s political agenda. The White House confirmed the funding pauses late Tuesday night but offered no further details on what that entails or what grants to the schools are being affected.
The moves come as the Trump administration has increasingly used governmental grant funding as a spigot to try and influence campus policy — previously cutting off money to schools including Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.
That has left universities across the country struggling to navigate cuts to grants for research institutions.
▶ Read more about the halt in federal funding to colleges
China is raising its retaliatory tariff on the US to 84%, up from 34%, effective April 10
China has again vowed to “fight to the end,” raising tariffs on American goods to 84% to match Trump’s addition of a 50% tariff, while adding an array of additional countermeasures on Wednesday.
The 84% tariff will go into effect on Thursday and comes as a 104% tax on the country’s exports to the U.S. went into effect. “If the U.S. insists on further escalating its economic and trade restrictions, China has the firm will and abundant means to take necessary countermeasures and fight to the end,” the Ministry of Commerce wrote in a statement introducing the white paper.
The government declined to say whether it would negotiate with the White House, as many other countries have started doing.
“If the U.S. truly wants to resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation, it should adopt an attitude of equality, respect and mutual benefit,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian on Wednesday.
Are more tariffs coming?
As part of a flurry of countermeasures, China has said it will levy its own 84% tariff on all U.S. goods — up from 34% — starting Thursday.
Trump quickly criticized China’s move, but China maintained that it would “fight to the end” and take countermeasures against the U.S. to protect itself.
The trade war between the U.S. and China isn’t new. The two countries had exchanged a series of tit-for-tat levies in recent months — on top of tariffs imposed during Trump’s first term, many of which were preserved or added to under former President Joe Biden.
While China has taken the toughest approach so far, several other countries signaled that they are evaluating their own responses to Trump’s levies.
We may see more retaliation in the future, but some have signaled hopes to negotiate. The head of the European Union’s executive commission is among those offering a mutual reduction of tariffs — while warning that countermeasures are still an option.
Trump’s latest round of tariffs are poised to go into effect. Here’s what we know
Trump has launched tariff wars with nearly all of America’s trading partners. And there’s no end in sight.
Several sweeping new taxes on goods from other countries are already here — and more took effect on Wednesday. Trump has promised higher rates for his latest and most severe volley of duties, which he calls “reciprocal” tariffs.
Trump announced his latest — and most sweeping — round of tariffs on April 2, which he dubbed “Liberation Day,” as part of his “reciprocal” trade plan. In a fiery speech claiming other countries had “ripped off” the U.S. for years, Trump declared that the U.S. would now tax nearly all of America’s trading partners at a minimum of 10% — and impose steeper rates for countries he says run trade surpluses with the U.S.
The 10% baseline already went into effect Saturday. And when the clock struck midnight, the higher import tax rates on dozens of countries and territories took hold.
▶ Read more about Trump’s latest round of tariffs
