The OEMs Enmeshed in the Great Tariff Folly — April 2025

President Trump’s tariff tirades have greatly disturbed the global ecosphere but reports of the death of globalisation are premature. Economic logic will surely prevail, we hope.

At the time of writing, President Trump had pulled back from his initial swingeing tariffs, announced on Liberation Day, (April 2),bizarrely calculated to try to equalise trade in goods between the USA and other countries regardless of the actual tariffs in place or the production specialisms of different countries. He has reduced the standard tariff to 10%, to be paid by US importers, but had retained the threat of imposing the original tariffs in a couple of months (August 8 is the dreaded date). China has called his bluff, matching 145% super tariffs with similar taxes on US imports — in effect killing US-PRC trade.