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Markets took a severe hit as U.S. President Donald Trump's most extensive tariffs were implemented on Saturday. Many analysts warn that this move will escalate global trade tensions, fuel concerns about a recession, and likely provoke retaliatory measures from trading partners. France24 International Affairs Commentator, Douglas Herbert, provides further insight.
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Well, France 24's international affairs commentator Douglas Herbert joins me now on set for a closer look at this all
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Doug, so these tariffs actually went even further than what most experts had expected
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Yeah, let me do an editorial sigh. Now let's go on. Look, the reason I'm saying that is there is the shock
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There is that sense of everyone stunned, economists and investors and governments and so on
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There is the stock market having $5 trillion of value wiped off of it, the S&P 500 since Wednesday
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There's all that. But compound that with the extreme anxiety and deep uncertainty about the man who has unleashed these tariffs, Donald Trump
0:39
The fact no one really knows what he's going to do next. Now, you could say, come on, Doug
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How could anyone say they're genuinely surprised by this move? Donald Trump, it is true, has been talking about tariffs for 40 years
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He himself has said this. He took out full-page ads in US newspapers as far back as 1987, advocating for tariffs
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It hardly comes as a shock but what does come as a shock is the degree to which they become a blunt cudgel Applied sort of across the board seemingly without any recognition of the nuance without any recognition of the countries
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that are actually on the receiving end, what are the conditions there, against the advice of all the economists
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and even in his own cabinet. He doesn't have, it's all yes men, but there are people on his cabinet perhaps
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who might have more fine-tuned these tariffs. So you have all of this uncertainty
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you have this sense of not knowing, and you have Donald Trump himself digging in more than ever, saying
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there's no way, no how, I am not changing my policies. So in the first term, right, he had some people pushing back
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This time, there's no one pushing back. There are no no-men or even maybe-men saying in his ear
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maybe you should reconsider. In the midst of all this, look, just to give you an idea of where Donald Trump is
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he was meeting in the White House on Wednesday, just before this announcement on so-called Liberation Day this week
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with a far right conspiracy theorist, very prominent personality on social media in the US
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Her name is Laura Loomer. You may have heard from her. She is so far to the right that even in his campaign she was a little bit sidelined But Donald Trump has very much kept her in the inner circle He had reportedly a half hour meeting with him with her on Wednesday in the Oval
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Office, in the White House, on Liberation Day. And this is a woman who, let's remember, said 9-11
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was an inside job, said if Kamala Harris is elected, the White House will smell like curry
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chained herself literally to the doorstep of Twitter's headquarters wearing a yellow star
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of David, same star that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. Why? Because she had been
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banned from Twitter. That's who Donald Trump was spending his time meeting with on Wednesday. You
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could say, oh, come on, Doug, you're Trump bashing. I'm not Trump bashing. That is just, that is the person, as someone who is so reviled by even most Republicans, they want nothing to do
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with her. And on the biggest day, perhaps, of his administration so far with the biggest
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announcement, that is why people look at this man and they're wondering, does he know what he's
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doing? Does he understand? Does he care? And when they look at and hear his words and see his actions
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they say, it doesn't seem so. So if we change gears a little bit, Doug, Europeans are worried
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than not only about the tariffs affecting their goods, but the possibility that China will flood the EU market
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with products that it be unable to sell in the United States This is a whole other aspect Everyone looking over here in Europe Look over here from Asia and China right now Sure Europe is having 20 tariffs very high higher than the 10 baseline tariffs put on it And it extremely manufacturers are already already really spooked
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by that impact. Now they have the prospect of cheap Asian goods, especially Chinese goods
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Remember, Trump hit China with punitive tariffs of 34%. Add those to earlier tariffs
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China has 54% tariffs effectively. They're afraid that China, Asia, are going to divert now a lot of their products to European markets
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especially electrical goods. Yes, it's true that Europe has already slapped tariffs of up to, I think, 20% to 30%, 35% on electric vehicles from China
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but they're fearing that a lot of other types of sectors and products are going to start coming over
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because the tariff wall is so formidable in the U.S. They just can't send their products there anymore
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So what is the EU going to have to do? Not only is it looking at the US tariffs
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it has to look now to the threat from Asia, and they have to somehow, or they're thinking up ways
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that they could put into place countermeasures to further protect themselves. So when you say that this is a global trade war
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this is just one effect of it. Douglas Herbert, thank you very much
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