WASHINGTON, United States — United States President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that he plans to place tariffs of over 10 percent on smaller countries, including nations in Africa and the Caribbean.
“We’ll probably set one tariff for all of them,” Trump said, adding that it could be “a little over 10 percent tariff” on goods from at least 100 nations.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick interjected that the nations with goods being taxed at these rates would be in Africa and the Caribbean, places that generally do relatively modest levels of trade with the U.S. and would be relatively insignificant for addressing Trump’s goals of reducing trade imbalances with the rest of the world.
Trump’s April 2 Liberation Day tariff announcements saw dozens of countries hit with varying surcharges on goods imported to the US, including Zimbabwe, which was hit with an 18 percent levy on all products it exports there.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa immediately announced that all taxes on US imports would be scrapped in order to build a “positive relationship” with Washington.
Zimbabwe mostly exports steel components, tobacco and sugar to the US while the US exports machinery, pharmaceuticals and agricultural produce to the Zimbabwean market.
Trade between the two countries is limited, reaching a total of about $111.6 million in 2024. US exports to Zimbabwe amounted to $43.8 million, while imports from Zimbabwe were $67.8 million. The trade deficit in favour of Zimbabwe was, therefore, just over $24 million, according to US government data.
Trump has this month been posting letters to roughly two dozen countries and the European Union that simply levied a tariff rate to be charged starting August 1.
Those countries generally faced tax rates on the goods close to the April 2 rates, whose rollout of historically high import taxes for the U.S. caused financial markets to panic and led to Trump setting a 90-day negotiating period that expired July 9.
Trump also said he would “probably” announce tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs at the “end of the month.”
The president said he would start out at a lower tariff rate and give companies a year to build domestic factories before they faced higher import tax rates. Trump said computer chips would face a similar style of tariffs. – AP
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