Bhubaneswar: In 1930, the US passed the Smoot Holy Tariff Act which sparked the great depression and the global trade war world economy. In 2025, Donald Trump is doing little better. The US president has followed through on his threats and slapped sweeping tariffs, some as high as 50% on US trade partners and countries across the globe, i.e. from Brazil Syria and India. Most of the decisions in this regard are personal like the 25% tariff on India, 50% on Brazil and 19% on Pakistan.
The driving factors for this is thought to be not the economics or fairness but Trump’s trade mark mixed with politics and pressure. He is calling it a trade reset but many countries say it is trade war. Fir American households it is an invisible tax.
In India the tariffs have sparked a political storm. They threaten to slow down growth of our country and shake up alliances globally. On top of all this Trump wants credit through this chaos, and disruptions. But amidst all these the pertinent question arises who would bear the brunt of this tariff. Asia is bearing the brunt mostly; Myanmar and Laos are hit with 40% tariff. These countries are already struggling economically, on top of that this tariff is brutal for them.
India and Brune are hit with 25% tariff. India will be hit by everyday items from jewelry to textiles. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand have been slapped with 20% tariff. Most of these mentioned countries heavily rely on the US for textile and electronic exports.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines are slightly in a better position as they are facing 19% tariff. Here, Pakistan getting 19% of tariff can be termed as a geo-economic flirtation. Islamabad has been cozying up to Trump. They have even nominated the US president for a Nobel peace prize. Trump’s family has a crypto deal with Islamabad.
Coming to Syria, it faces 41% tariffs. This is a country that has been struggling to recover from a decade long civil war. Switzerland has been hit by 39%, Canada 35%, tariffs.
There are some countries which are less affected. There are two main categories, one the countries with the trade deals, where the European Union negotiated itself to 15%, Japan also got 15%, the United Kingdom 10%. Second there are the ones who are still negotiating like China.
There is still this confusion whether Trump is serious this time or there another delay in the cart. On the one hand he says that he means business as these tariffs are set in stone the countries strike a deal. The new tariffs will come into effect on the 7 August but knowing Trump the confusion remains high for the future developments.
-OdishaAge
