When President Trump announced on February 1 the imposition of twenty-five per cent tariffs on Mexican and most Canadian imports and ten per cent on goods from China, demanding they curb the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigrants into the United States (US), he may have not realized the cataclysmic effect of his decisions. This does not suggest that the level of the newly imposed tariffs was so high that the global economy could not absorb the blow. After all, what has followed is a continuous oscillation between announcements of new tariffs and their suspension or freezing due to ongoing negotiations. This situation has created enormous uncertainty, which is still the case even after the end of the 90-day suspension period, announced by the American administration on 9 April. In a very depictive cartoon published in a Canadian newspaper, President Trump is caricatured as Forest Gump, the central character of the famous American film, stating that “[t]ariff threats are like a box of chocolates. Your trading partners never know what they are going to get”!
Authors: Panagiotis Konstantinou, Assistant Professor, Athens University of Economics and Business; Spyros Blavoukos, Professor, Athens University of Economics and Business; Head of the ‘Ariane Contellis’ European Programme, ELIAMEP and Panagiota Pagoni, Research Assistant, ELIAMEP.
This article is available on the ELIAMEP website.
