Donald Trump’s tariff threats signal new era of global trade disruption

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Donald Trump has ushered in an era of global economic disruption, threatening new tariffs against US allies and moving to dismantle Joe Biden’s domestic and foreign agenda just hours after returning to the White House.

In his extensive comments to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday evening. Trump threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico starting February 1, hitting currencies of countries and lower US stock futures.

The new 47th US president also threatened impose tariffs on Chinese goods up to 100 percent if Beijing fails to agree a deal to sell at least 50 percent of the TikTok app to a U.S. company and tariffs on EU goods unless they buy more U.S. oil.

The comments and jitters in global markets provided yet another reminder of Trump’s willingness to upend the global order and engage in high-stakes coercive negotiations to impose America’s will on key trading partners.

The Oval Office remarks came hours after Trump used his inaugural address to pledge to end America’s “decline” and usher in a new era. “Golden Age” based on the dramatic reversal of the progressive agenda of the Biden administration.

The 78-year-old president quickly announced aggressive new moves to boost fossil fuel production, deport immigrants and deliver the populist and nationalist platform that won him last year’s White House race.

He rescinded dozens of Biden’s executive orders on everything from advancing racial equality and imposing sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank to strengthening Medicaid and promoting voting access.

The sweeping review included the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord again and marked a statement of intent from the world’s most prominent right-wing politician, who was elected after promising to change the agenda of the Biden administration.

Trump also announced that he would pardon people convicted of participating in the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol, when his supporters stormed Congress to violently stop the ratification of Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Pardoning the rioters sparked a remarkable comeback for Trump himself, who won last year’s election despite becoming the first president to be convicted of a crime and following an assassination attempt.

Trump’s trade jitters grew during the day. In his inauguration speech, Trump suggested that tariffs are his preferred tool of international economic diplomacy and would be vital to raising US revenues, while ignoring their potential to raise prices for American consumers.

“Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will impose tariffs and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” he said.

Trump said a plan to impose blanket tariffs on all imports, which he floated during his campaign, remains on the table.

Trump spoke in the Oval Office surrounded by key aides, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, policy director Stephen Miller and his top White House adviser on trade and manufacturing policy, Peter Navarro.

In a signal that a crackdown on immigration remains a domestic policy priority, Trump also signed a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and took steps to reduce birthright citizenship for those born on US soil to illegal immigrants.

“It’s a big thing. . We are the only country in the world that does this as a birthright,” he said, although dozens of other nations allow that right.

Trump’s move will almost certainly be challenged in court for violating the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

The president also directed the Pentagon to develop a plan to deploy troops to the US-Mexico border.

Trump also called drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations. Sending US special forces to Mexico to get them out “could happen. Stranger things have happened,” he added.

Trump declined to say whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement would launch raids in major cities on Tuesday to detain illegal immigrants.

Among his foreign policy pledges, Trump said the US would take back control of the Panama Canal and “build the strongest military the world has ever seen,” even as he pledged to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, saying he would be a “peacemaker.”