Big techs dropped in after-hours trading. Apple stock tumbled 6%; Tesla dropped 5.6%; Amazon, Nvidia, Meta fell over 4%.
The tariffs, announced during a White House event, would reach 46% and 26% respectively for Vietnam and India. The announcement jolted investors, who have grown increasingly concerned that tariffs will hurt Apple’s bottom line.
Trump said Wednesday he will apply a minimum 10% tariff on all exporters to the US and slap additional duties on around 60 nations with the largest trade imbalances with the US.
The higher “reciprocal” rates targeting nations the Trump administration labels the worst offenders are based on a government tally of the levies and non-tariff barriers those countries impose on US goods. Under Trump’s plan, those countries facing higher, customized rates will be hit with a levy equal to one-half of that calculated amount.
The baseline import taxes will take effect after midnight Saturday and the higher duties will kick at 12:01 a.m. on April 9, according to senior administration officials who discussed the plans on the condition of anonymity. Canada and Mexico already face 25% tariffs tied to drug trafficking and illegal migration; those will remain in place and the US’s two largest trading partners will not be subject to the new tariff regime as long as the separate tariffs are in effect. Exemptions on goods covered by the North American trade agreement Trump brokered in his first term will stay.
The European Union will have a 20% levy and Vietnam is seeing a 46% tariff, according to White House documents. Other nations slapped with larger tariffs include Japan at 24%, South Korea at 25%, India at 26%, Cambodia at 49%.
“This is not full reciprocal. This is kind reciprocal,” Trump said.
Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the tariffs Trump announced Wednesday were “much worse than we feared.” Just how they would be administered was unclear, she said, and there were “huge implications for rerouting of trade” globally.
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