5 takeaways on President Trump's massive tariffs that are even steeper than expected

5 takeaways on President Trump's massive tariffs that are even steeper than expected

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs Wednesday affecting all U.S. trading partners and imports, plowing ahead on a risky economic strategy that promises to further accelerate a global trade war and raise anxieties about higher consumer prices at home.

Trump hailed the massive tariffs as a "declaration of economic independence," arguing the far-reaching duties will rejuvenate the nation's declining manufacturing sector.

"We're standing up for the American worker, and we are finally putting America first," Trump said during a Rose Garden ceremony before signing the tariffs through an executive order.

But many economists worry the large-scale tariffs ‒ Trump's most expansive tariffs to date and larger than most experts expected ‒ could further hurt a weakening economy, send the stock market plummeting and even lead to a recession.

Here are five takeaways form Trump's long-awaited tariffs.

A 10% baseline tariff for all countries

Trump's tariff plan includes a 10% baseline tariff on goods from all countries, a dramatic shift in current U.S. trade policy.

Trump declared a national emergency on trade in the U.S. ‒ which imported $1.2 trillion more in goods in 2024 than it exported ‒ as legal grounds to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to issue the tariffs.

"We import virtually all of our computers, phones, televisions and electronics. We used to dominate the field, and now we import it all from different countries," Trump said, adding that a single shipyard in China produces more ships every year than all U.S. shipyards combined.

"Chronic trade deficits are no longer merely an economic problem, they're a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life," he added.

The baseline tariff applies to about 185 countries in all, even the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, remote external territories of Australia in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean that have more penguins and seals than people and no apparent trade activity.