(Source: Economic Network, 2025-08-14)

Recently, the United States has been wielding the stick of tariffs in a flurry.

Shortly after announcing a 25% tariff on India at the end of July, Trump once again threatened to increase the tariff on the grounds that "India directly or indirectly imports Russian oil." As a result, the overall US tariff rate on India reaches 50%.

The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately issued a statement, believing that Trump’s executive order was “unfair, unjust, and unreasonable” and that the relevant criticism and accusations were “unjustified”.

In fact, the United States is not only at odds with India, but its tariff negotiations with other allies are not going smoothly either.

 

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South Korea is obviously not satisfied with the agreement between the United States and South Korea.

On July 30, local time, Trump signed an announcement to impose an additional 50% tariff on imported semi-finished copper and copper-intensive products from August 1.

On the same day, he announced that he had reached a "comprehensive agreement" with South Korea: South Korea must invest US$350 billion in the United States, the United States will impose a 15% tariff on South Korea, South Korea must fully open its market, and South Korea must not impose taxes on the United States.

Kim Yong-beom, the policy director of the South Korean Presidential Office, said bluntly, “This means that the South Korea-US Free w88 Agreement has actually become a ‘semi-finished product’.”

Japan is also quite troubled. The official announcement by the United States that tariffs will be imposed on August 7 is inconsistent with the previous agreement reached between Japan and the United States. Japan’s Minister of Economic Revitalization Ryomasa Akasawa publicly stated that the content of the latest U.S. announcement is inconsistent with the agreement.

In other words, the United States unilaterally changed the content of the agreement, and Japan did not know about it at all.

White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt displays a letter from US President Trump to the President of South Korea at a press conference. Xinhua News Agency

In addition, in the Japan-US agreement, Japan promised to invest 550 billion US dollars in the United States. Trump said that the United States "can use it however it wants." Akasawa Ryomasa said that Japan cannot cooperate if it is not beneficial to Japanese companies and the Japanese economy.

On the EU side, Trump said on July 27 that he had reached an agreement with the EU to impose an additional 15% tariff on EU goods exported to the United States. He also asked the EU to invest an additional US$600 billion to buy US arms and US$750 billion in energy products.

In this regard, Goldman Sachs estimates that this agreement may cause a loss of 0.4 percentage points in EU GDP. The German Automobile Industry Association predicts that the agreement will cost German car companies billions of euros every year.

But Trump was indifferent to the protests from other countries. He declared in a high-profile voice: "Hundreds of millions of dollars in tariffs are rolling into the United States of America!"

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A Yale University report shows that the average effective tariff rate in the United States has now reached 18.3%, reaching the highest level since 1934.

Why does the United States impose tariffs indiscriminately around the world?

Tu Xinquan, Dean of the China WTO Research Institute at the w88 casinoIn an interview with this reporter, he analyzed that there are several key reasons behind the United States wielding the tariff stick so intensively around the world.

 

For a long time, the United States has regarded itself as the "leader" in the multilateral trading system and has single-handedly promoted the process of market opening. This makes its own tariff levels relatively low and its market openness higher than that of most countries. Instead, its tariff levels and openness show a sharp contrast between "low" and "high" in international comparisons - this contrast has become the potential psychological basis for its frequent increase in taxes.

What worries Trump even more is the huge and ever-expanding w88 deficit in the United States. In his view, this deficit is due to an unfair trading system. It is other countries that are trying to take advantage of the United States, which makes the United States fall behind in w88 exchanges.

At the same time, the situation of the U.S. manufacturing industry also makes it anxious. Trump believes that once the manufacturing industry weakens, the industrial foundation and core competitiveness of the United States will be affected, directly affecting the country's long-term development. Facing competition from economies such as China, the European Union, India, and Japan, the United States attempts to curb the economic development of other countries and maintain its hegemony by imposing additional tariffs.

In addition, the long-standing fiscal deficit problem in the United States has also become a driving force. After the Trump administration came to power, "paying off debt" became the top priority.

Tu Xinquan pointed out that despite the increase in tariff revenue, other taxes are likely to decline due to policy implications. Combined with the huge fiscal deficit in the United States, the increase in tariffs cannot solve the big problem at all.

Since he can’t make any money, why does Trump focus on tariffs? Richard Scheer, a law professor at the Wharton w88 casino of the University of Pennsylvania, analyzed, “The real reason is domestic politics.” Currently, high tariffs are also a political promise that Trump needs to fulfill.

President Trump. Xinhua News Agency

Since the United States began to impose indiscriminate tariffs around the world, the U.S. government has changed its orders day by day and repeatedly tested the bottom lines of various countries. When it encounters tough countries, it just accepts them and lets others decide what to do. This shows that the U.S. itself is not fully prepared.

Tu Xinquan said that most of the agreements between the United States and various countries are oral agreements, and no one can say whether or how much they can be implemented. Some countries have promised to eliminate tariffs on the United States, but it is unknown when and how they will do so.

From the compromises and dissatisfaction of various countries, we can see that they do not sincerely recognize the agreement. Behind the forced compromise, there are also the dissatisfaction and calculations of the allies.

Bernd Lange, Chairman of the International w88 Committee of the European Parliament, bluntly stated that the European and American agreements are weakening the EU's economic strength; German Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Klingbeyer said that the agreement will harm Germany's economic growth; Indian Prime Minister Modi stated that he is "ready" to respond; Brazil is considering joining BRICS countries to boycott the US tariff policy...

The United States insists on going its own way, and other countries are also stepping up their efforts to adjust their foreign w88 policies. The EU is developing closer w88 relations with the United Kingdom, Canada, India and South Africa, Canada is seeking the Southeast Asian market, and Brazil and Mexico are also strengthening cooperation.

Tu Xinquan said that if this trend continues, "the world will isolate the United States."

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