Good morning. Friend or foe? It hardly mattered yesterday as Donald Trump unveiled sweeping targets against all the trading partners of the United States. The headline numbers to know: A 10% baseline tariff on all imports, with specific and higher tariffs on some countries, including 34% on China (on top of the existing 20% tariffs), 20% on the EU and as high as 46% and 49% on Vietnam and Cambodia respectively. “They do it to us, we do it to them,” the President said during the Rose Garden unveiling. Some food for thought as the fallout begins:
Adam Smith once wrote that nations rarely thrive by beggaring their neighbors. That was in 1776, when mercantilism was dying and the U.S. was being born. Freed from British rule, the young nation used tariffs to develop homegrown industries that later competed on the world stage. With a globally connected U.S now returning to tariff levels last seen in the early 1900s, as cars were just coming on the scene, the impact could be very different.
More news below.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
