Eight major trading partners accounting for about 40 per cent of US trade flows have reached framework deals for trade and investment concessions to Donald Trump, including the European Union, Japan and South Korea, reducing their base tariff rates to 15 per cent.
Britain and Australia won a 10 per cent rate, while Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines secured rate reductions to 19 per cent or 20 per cent.
“For those countries, it’s less-bad news,” said William Reinsch, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“There’ll be some supply chain rearrangement. There’ll be a new equilibrium. Prices here will go up, but it’ll take a while for that to show up in a major way,” Reinsch said.
Nations with punishingly high duties, such as India and Canada, “will continue to scramble around trying to fix this”, he added.
with Reuters