Perhaps U.S. President Donald Trump was trying to deflect attention from his own political and potential legal troubles when he announced another round of aggressive tariffs- this time a 25 percent tariff on “every car from the European Union.” The comment came late Tuesday night from a campaign rally in West Virginia, only hours after the Wall Street Journal reported on Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s note that he had pushed off the report on auto tariffs that was due out this month. Ross did not set a new timeline for the auto tariffs, though he did cite the reason for the delay was continuing negotiations between the U.S. and the European Commission, Mexico and Canada.
According to CNBC, many economists have speculated that increased tariffs would harm the American economy as well as the countries that the tariffs are aiming to hurt. U.S. companies have already begun to complain that the tariffs are having negative effects on their core business. Likewise, the tariffs will require Americans to pay more for products that are used on a daily basis which may harm the country’s economy in the long run. Among the products that are expected to become more expensive are holiday costumes and seasonal supplies, seafood, furniture, tires and children’s car seats.
Asian markets opened mixed on Wednesday after Trump’s announcement. The Nikkei 225 was up 0.16 percent as of 10:05 a.m. HK/SIN and South Korea’s Kopsi was up 0.21 percent. On the other side of the spectrum was Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index which was 0.56 percent lower and Australia’s ASX 200 which was down 0.51 percent. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.66 percent.
The dollar struggled in early Asian trade with the greenback falling 0.10 percent against the yen to 110.17. The dollar was also down against the British pound and the euro. The common currency gained 0.07 percent against the dollar to trade at $1.1576. The dollar index was a modest 0.05 percent lower to 95.21 .DXY.