Trump’s tariff storm: What’s been enacted, what’s next, and who’s affected

US President Donald Trump - File Photo

Within a little more than two months, US President Donald Trump has made trade policy into an exercise of high-risk brinksmanship, unleashing a flood of tariffs that left global markets, US industries, and foreign governments reeling. Since his inauguration day, Trump has used tariffs as both a political club and an economic instrument — suggesting, postponing, issuing, and occasionally revoking import duties at breakneck pace, as reported by the Washington Post.

A disorganised roll-out with worldwide implications

The tariff policy under Trump started early, with threatening to impose a 25 percent duty on everything imported from Canada and Mexico. Shortly afterwards, the administration also floated tech and pharmaceutical imports considered essential, as well as invoked trade threats for use in international policy — aggressively pressuring Colombia into accepting flights of deportations. The early years also featured a 100 percent tariff threat levelled against the BRICS countries with a warning about the implications for them if they abandoned the US dollar as a reserve currency.

By the beginning of March, Trump had officially imposed a 10 percent tariff on Chinese products while leaving Canada and Mexico out — at least for a little while. Those exceptions came to be revoked later, and then remade as carve-outs for cooperative industries within the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. In the same breath, the president declared "reciprocal" tariffs, a worldwide 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminium, and a new set of proposed tariffs on foreign automobiles and automotive components.

The figures: Hundreds of billions affected, trillions in tow

Through March 21, tariffs had been imposed on some $800 billion worth of products. A broader batch of trade tariffs is scheduled to take effect on April 2, affecting possibly trillions of dollars of trade. The magnitude and speed of the actions have spooked economists and induced retaliatory threats from crucial trading partners.

Among the most dramatic steps: a floated 200 percent tariff on European steel and alcohol, a threatened doubling of Canadian steel and aluminium tariffs, and threats of new taxation.

Trump also instructed the US Commerce Department to investigate potential tariffs on lumber, agriculture, copper, and other goods.

Economic ramifications and political repercussions

Although the administration presents the tariffs as a means of protecting U.S. industry and acquiring bargaining power, numerous economists caution that the policy is likely to blow back. Rising consumer costs, supply chain problems, and worldwide retaliatory tariffs are serious threats to the American economy.

"Trump has created a degree of economic uncertainty in a calculated and really unnecessary way," said UCLA School of Law economist Kimberly Clausing. "There's nothing comparable in my lifetime in the United States."

Companies are also stuck in limbo. The whiplash proposals and rollbacks give companies a hard time planning investments or retooling supply chains. And as the administration keeps toggling between threats and carve-outs, the absence of a consistent trade strategy could be its own liability.

What's next: April's massive wave

In the months to come, the April 2 tranche of tariffs casts a shadow, with even broader actions set to affect almost every large US trading partner. Trump has made it clear that no nation is exempt, and no industry untouchable. That uncertainty has created a turbulent environment in international markets and fuelled worries about a full-blown trade war.

Whether or not this combative trade stance results in fresh contracts or an avalanche of economic blowback, however, remains to be determined. But this much is certain: Trump's tariff binge has remade the world of global commerce in 60 days — and the next act could be even more chaotic.