By Catherine Lucey and Josh Wingrove
Investors were growing optimistic that Donald Trump’s trade wars had started to calm down. His latest tariff broadsides quickly disabused them of that notion.
Initial agreements with the UK and China buoyed hopes on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms that the US president was starting to peel back the highest US tariffs in nearly a century.
But Friday delivered a harsh reminder of Trump’s volatile policymaking and penchant for brinkmanship, when he threatened a 50% tariff on the European Union and a 25% levy on smart phones if companies including Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. failed to move production to the US.
Equities dropped across the globe, the dollar slumped to its lowest level since 2023 and business leaders were left to grapple with the notion that Trump-generated uncertainty is here to stay.
“Today’s news that Trump is threatening enormous tariffs on the EU and is singling out Apple as a firm are examples of what we we should expect for the next two months if not for the rest of the year,” said Marcus Noland, executive vice president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Peace has not broken out.”
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