April 2 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is expected to declare his next round of tariffs at the White House Wednesday.
The announcement is scheduled for 4 p.m. EDT. He has dubbed April 2 as “Liberation Day,” and White House officials said the implementation of the financial levies on foreign imports will take place immediately upon his proclamations.
The exact plans have been kept quiet, but the threat of the tariffs has impacted global stock markets, created alarm among world leaders, economists and businesspeople and moved U.S. trading partners to make threats of retaliation.
“I will reject all attempts to weaken Canada. All attempts to wear us down. To break us down so that America can own us,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on social media Tuesday that “Europe did not start the tariff confrontation.”
“Tariffs are taxes, paid by the people. But Europe has everything to protect our people and our prosperity,” she said.
Director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office Wang Yi said Tuesday that “If the United States continues to exert pressure or even continue to engage in various forms of blackmail, China will resolutely counter it.”
The White House named on X Tuesday some of the existing tariffs against American products, including a “50% tariff from the EU on American dairy, 700% tariff from Japan on American rice, 100% tariff from India on American [agricultural] products, 300% tariff from Canada on American butter [and] cheese.”
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt discussed those tariffs with reporters Tuesday and said that they make it “virtually impossible for American products to be imported into these markets,” and that “it has put a lot of Americans out of business and out of work over the past several decades.
So it’s time for reciprocity, and time for a president to take historic change, to do what’s right for the American people. And that’s going to take place on Wednesday,” she said.
Trump has already restored a 25% tariff on all aluminum and steel imports, tariffs on all Chinese imports, and a 10% tariff on Canadian energy imports. A tariff on all imported vehicles goes into effect Thursday.
The stock market has suffered since the White House began its tariff implementation and threats. Monday was the end of the first quarter of 2025, during which two of the three major exchanges have seen their worst quarters in two years, and consumer confidence has hit a four-year low. A number of banks have lowered their forecasts for growth of the U.S. economy and note the chance of a recession have increased.
