US President Donald Trump at West Palm Beach in Florida in November 2024. Photo: Getty Images.
Kenya has been spared after united States President Donald Trump slapped trading partners with steep tariffs on dozen of exports.
The new order listed higher import duty rates of 10 per cent to 41 per cent starting in seven days for 69 trading partners, while formalising recent deals with others, including the UK and EU, as he plunged the global economy into a new era of mercantile competition.
In a US president’s executive order on Thursday announcing the tariffs, Trump said that they were designed to reduce America’s trade deficit with many countries, which it described as an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States.
“This is a new system of trade. We’re moving from a system where the core principle was kind of efficiency at all costs to one where the core principle is fair and balanced trade,” said a senior administration official on Thursday night.
According to a report by Finance Times, tariffs would also raise US revenue, the order said, reflecting Trump’s plan to use duties on imports to pay for deep domestic tax cuts.
According to him, the tariffs were also prompted by failure by some partners to engage in negotiations with the United States or to take adequate steps to engage on economic and national security matters.
“I have determined that it is necessary and appropriate to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14257 by imposing additional ad valorem duties on goods of certain trading partners at the rates set forth,” Trump stated.
In the East African region, Uganda have been slapped with a 15 per cent reciprocal tariff. South Africa, Algeria and Libya face the highest rate on the continent at 30 per cent followed by Tunisia at 25 per cent.
Other African countries on the list face a 15 per cent reciprocal tariff. They are: Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d`Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea.
According to economic experts, Trump had set an August 1 deadline for dozens of countries to agree trade deals or face higher tariffs, sparking frantic efforts by US trading partners to avert a full-blown trade war with the world’s most powerful economy.
About the Author
