On April 2nd, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the U.S. was applying tariffs on the world. Trump called it “Liberation Day”.
Trump explained the tariffs with the help of a chart:
First, a baseline of 10% tariff is being charged to all global trading partners, except for Canada and Mexico.
Then there are adjusted reciprocal tariffs. First, the administration calculated the tariffs that each country applied to U.S. exports (encouraging currency manipulation and trade barriers). Then that percentage was cut approximately in half, actually a little bit more than half.
For example, China, according to the administration, charges the U.S. 67% tariffs, so the new tariffs on China are to be 34%. That’s on top of the 20% tariff China is already charged.
The European Union is to be charged 20%, Vietnam 46%, Taiwan 32%, Japan 24%, India 26%, South Korea 25%.
Some countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia and Saudi Arabia are only being charged the 10% baseline.
The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, located the southern Indian Ocean, was slapped with 10% tariffs despite being uninhabited and having no imports nor exports. There are many penguins there.
You can see tariff charts here and here.
The 10% baseline tariffs are to take effect April 5th. The adjusted reciprocal tariffs are to take effect April 9th.
Canada and Mexico were exempt from this round of tariffs. But they are currently subject to the automotive tariff scheduled to take effect on April 3rd.