US president announces global tariffs, including on 51 African nations

United States President Donald Trump announced plans for sweeping tariffs Wednesday, saying “our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” by other nations.

The aggressive rhetoric came as Trump showed a willingness to dismantle a global economic system that the United States helped to build after World War II.

“My fellow Americans, this is liberation day,” he said as he announced duties across almost all countries, including 51 African states.

Trump’s tariffs include a baseline 10 per cent on all imports and much higher duties on some of the country’s biggest trading partners.

He claims they will give the United States protection against country’s looking to do it “economic harm”.

“And many people were looking to do us economic harm. Maybe not so obviously, but they were doing tremendous economic harm,” he said.

Trump also claims the new duties will give the US “growth like you haven't seen before, and it'll be something very special”.

He said ordinary American workers have “suffered gravely” because of the policies of other countries.

“They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream,” he said.

Some of the countries Trump has imposed tariffs on are among the poorest and most vulnerable in the world, including those experiencing civil wars or severe economic crises.

Towards the end of his speech in the White House’s Rose Garden, Trump said he thought people were “going to remember today”.

He predicted that the public might look back on his economic policies and conclude he was right, despite many experts predicting his policies will result in a major upheaval for the US economy.

His move reverses also decades of trade liberalisation. The announcement left markets across the world reeling amid concerns the new duties will slow growth, hit corporate earnings, and stoke global inflation.

After his speech, Trump sat down at a small desk erected for the occasion and signed two executive orders that helped cement the new tariff policies.