SINGAPORE (Reuters) -President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday imposing reciprocal tariffs ranging from 10% to 41% on U.S. imports from dozens of countries and foreign locations.
Rates were set at 25% for India's U.S.-bound exports, 20% for Taiwan's and 30% for South Africa's. Trump also signed an executive order on Thursday increasing tariffs on Canadian goods to 35% from 25%, the White House said.
QUOTES:
TONY SYCAMORE, MARKET ANALYST, IG, SYDNEY:
"At this point, the reaction in markets
has been modest, and I think part of the reason for that is the recent trade deals with the EU, Japan, and South Korea have certainly helped to cushion the impact, as has Mexico being granted a 90-day reprieve. And Trump said that trade talks with China are doing reasonably well there.
"So on top of all of that, you have the TACO trade type situation whereby, after being obviously caught on the wrong foot in April, the market now, I think, has probably taken the view that these trade tariff levels can be renegotiated, can be walked lower over the course of time."
BRIAN JACOBSEN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ANNEX WEALTH MANAGEMENT, MENOMONEE FALLS, WISCONSIN (emailed comment):
"Just because we now have clarity on the tariffs, that doesn’t mean we have certainty about their effects.
"There are those who think that tariff-induced consumer price inflation will slowly build as businesses work down inventories and test how strong their pricing power is. Others think the tariff-induced inflation will peak earlier, showing up mostly in crimped profit margins and resulting in slower growth.
"However, what tariffs take with one hand, maybe tax incentives to invest and more open foreign markets can give with the other hand."
(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee, Rae Wee)
