Donald Trump has ushered in an era of disruption for the global economy, threatening new tariffs against US allies and moving to dismantle Joe Biden’s domestic and foreign agenda just hours after his return to the White House.
In wide-ranging comments to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday night, Trump threatened to force tariffs of up to 25 per cent on imports from Canada and Mexico as early as February 1, hitting the countries’ currencies and pushing US equity futures lower.
The newly minted 47th US president also threatened to apply levies on Chinese imports of up to 100 per cent if Beijing failed to agree on a deal to sell at least 50 per cent of the TikTok app to a US company, and tariffs on EU products unless they bought more American oil.