Trump’s ‘liberation’ means war for the world
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
President Donald Trump speaks at a reception celebrating Women's History Month in the East Room of the White House, March 26, 2025, in Washington.
WEDNESDAY is “liberation day” for the United States, according to President Donald Trump as he announces sweeping worldwide tariffs.
It is certainly a landmark day in the decay of capitalist globalisation, the ascendant force in the world economy since the 1970s, dominant since the 1990s and in crisis since the crash of 2008.
That globalisation is now dead. Even the chair of HSBC, one of the world’s biggest banks, Mark Tucker admitted as much last week.
Trump’s swingeing tariffs, imposed willy-nilly on ally and rival alike — indeed, he makes no distinction between the two categories as supine Keir Starmer looks likely to discover — are a declaration of economic warfare.
Some of these tariffs are, it is true, apparently designed simply to enforce whatever foreign policy demands are top of his agenda at any given moment. He is not the first US president to abuse economic power to secure diplomatic advantage.
But there is an underlying strategy to force manufacturers to return operations to the US itself to avoid imposts that would effectively wreck their access to the world’s largest consumer market.
Either way, it is introducing new barriers to the hitherto free(ish) flow of goods and capital, while potentially dividing up the world into spheres of influence.
The latter seems to be the point of Trump’s attempts, so far unfulfilled, to lure Vladimir Putin into a ceasefire preceding an agreed division of Ukraine and its resources.
Capitalist globalisation has already been modified, up to a point, by the emergence of the Brics grouping. This has become, with significant qualifications, a counterpoint to the “Washington Consensus” which imposed the rules of the US-led order on countries far and wide over a quarter-century or so.
HSBC is not particularly stressed by all this, according to boss Tucker. There would be new opportunities for the global trade finance giant within and between new “political groupings and trade blocs,” including the “Brics-plus countries,” he said.
Indeed, tariffs generally strengthen monopoly capital within the most powerful states, and also impel the expansion of territorial control by monopoly capitalist states. Trump’s intent to grab Greenland and the Panama Canal, as well as much of Ukraine’s natural wealth, are all of a piece.
And the new development of blocs is intensifying under Trump’s impetus. In the last few weeks China, Japan and South Korea have been exploring a free trade arrangement, while Canada is seeking to be included in the new European Union militarisation plans.
There is nothing to mourn in the passing of globalisation but much to fear in the new turn to protectionism and growing arms spending.
The passing phase of capitalist development has led to the evisceration of working-class communities and a widening inequality. It has also helped turn the Labour Party into almost its opposite — a party for capitalism’s winners and not for its losers.
This is now a shift comparable with the supersession of the “post-war consensus” by insurgent neoliberalism from the mid-1970s onwards. But like that earlier transition, it leaves the same class in charge.
However, tariff-protected expansionist national-monopoly capital is far more pregnant with the risk of imminent war. You do not need to read Lenin, Hilferding or Bukharin to understand that, only the news online.
The big question is whether the labour movement can mobilise forces equal to the challenge. “Welfare not Warfare” is a start, but class power is the overriding issue.
In previous times of contested transition socialism was the alternative road ultimately not taken. This time our entire future depends on a different choice. It is time the Trumps and Tuckers were alike dethroned by global working-class rule. That would be a real liberation day.
President Donald Trump speaks at a reception celebrating Women's History Month in the East Room of the White House, March 26, 2025, in Washington.
WEDNESDAY is “liberation day” for the United States, according to President Donald Trump as he announces sweeping worldwide tariffs.
It is certainly a landmark day in the decay of capitalist globalisation, the ascendant force in the world economy since the 1970s, dominant since the 1990s and in crisis since the crash of 2008.
That globalisation is now dead. Even the chair of HSBC, one of the world’s biggest banks, Mark Tucker admitted as much last week.
Trump’s swingeing tariffs, imposed willy-nilly on ally and rival alike — indeed, he makes no distinction between the two categories as supine Keir Starmer looks likely to discover — are a declaration of economic warfare.
Some of these tariffs are, it is true, apparently designed simply to enforce whatever foreign policy demands are top of his agenda at any given moment. He is not the first US president to abuse economic power to secure diplomatic advantage.
But there is an underlying strategy to force manufacturers to return operations to the US itself to avoid imposts that would effectively wreck their access to the world’s largest consumer market.
Either way, it is introducing new barriers to the hitherto free(ish) flow of goods and capital, while potentially dividing up the world into spheres of influence.
The latter seems to be the point of Trump’s attempts, so far unfulfilled, to lure Vladimir Putin into a ceasefire preceding an agreed division of Ukraine and its resources.
Capitalist globalisation has already been modified, up to a point, by the emergence of the Brics grouping. This has become, with significant qualifications, a counterpoint to the “Washington Consensus” which imposed the rules of the US-led order on countries far and wide over a quarter-century or so.
HSBC is not particularly stressed by all this, according to boss Tucker. There would be new opportunities for the global trade finance giant within and between new “political groupings and trade blocs,” including the “Brics-plus countries,” he said.
Indeed, tariffs generally strengthen monopoly capital within the most powerful states, and also impel the expansion of territorial control by monopoly capitalist states. Trump’s intent to grab Greenland and the Panama Canal, as well as much of Ukraine’s natural wealth, are all of a piece.
And the new development of blocs is intensifying under Trump’s impetus. In the last few weeks China, Japan and South Korea have been exploring a free trade arrangement, while Canada is seeking to be included in the new European Union militarisation plans.
There is nothing to mourn in the passing of globalisation but much to fear in the new turn to protectionism and growing arms spending.
The passing phase of capitalist development has led to the evisceration of working-class communities and a widening inequality. It has also helped turn the Labour Party into almost its opposite — a party for capitalism’s winners and not for its losers.
This is now a shift comparable with the supersession of the “post-war consensus” by insurgent neoliberalism from the mid-1970s onwards. But like that earlier transition, it leaves the same class in charge.
However, tariff-protected expansionist national-monopoly capital is far more pregnant with the risk of imminent war. You do not need to read Lenin, Hilferding or Bukharin to understand that, only the news online.
The big question is whether the labour movement can mobilise forces equal to the challenge. “Welfare not Warfare” is a start, but class power is the overriding issue.
In previous times of contested transition socialism was the alternative road ultimately not taken. This time our entire future depends on a different choice. It is time the Trumps and Tuckers were alike dethroned by global working-class rule. That would be a real liberation day.
Tariffs: Economic ‘liberation’ or straitjacket?
By AFP
March 31, 2025
Beiyi SEOW
US President Donald Trump has made tariffs a cornerstone of his trade policy, insisting that they will revive American manufacturing while swelling government coffers.
Critics argue that the levies will boost inflation in the near term and weigh on growth, triggering a trade war that could inflict serious damage on the United States and the wider global economy.
Trump has imposed tariffs on major trading partners Canada, Mexico and China since returning to the presidency while slapping fresh duties on steel and aluminum imports, with more to come on what he dubbed “Liberation Day” this Wednesday.
– What are tariffs? –
Tariffs are fees that importing businesses pay for their purchases of foreign goods.
When tariffs are imposed, companies must choose between forking out more for foreign goods — and potentially passing those costs on to consumers — or looking for alternatives.
The levies bring in revenue for governments imposing them and are commonly used to protect local companies and workers from competition abroad.
The charges can make domestic goods more cost-competitive, encouraging buyers to select local producers instead.
– Arguments for –
Trump’s position is that with tariffs on key imports, companies will move more manufacturing to the United States — or buy US-made products — to avoid additional fees.
A commonly-used example is the “chicken tax” of the 1960s, when president Lyndon Johnson pushed back against European tariffs on American poultry with a levy on imported trucks.
Today, a 25 percent US tariff remains on light trucks and this is a key reason that most pick-up trucks sold in the country are built in North America.
The White House says new tariffs could also bring in more than $6 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade — about $600 billion per year — although it has yet to release its full plans.
While US-based companies generally pay the tariffs, White House officials have argued that foreign sellers would absorb the hike by lowering their prices as they seek to do business with the world’s biggest economy.
Supporters of Trump’s trade policy also say that tariffs did not cause widespread inflation during his first White House term.
– Arguments against –
But economists warn that tariff hikes can bring economic pain to affected sectors, and Trump’s stop-start approach to announcing levies has sent financial markets tumbling.
If companies are unable to absorb additional fees and foreign sellers decline to lower their prices, the burden of tariffs could flow to other firms or consumers.
Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on autos and parts could cause the price of a typical car to surge by $5,000 to $10,000, said Wedbush analysts.
Even US automakers producing cars in the country use up to 50 percent of foreign auto parts, they said.
“It would take three years to move 10 percent of the auto supply chain to the US and cost hundreds of billions with much complexity and disruption,” Wedbush added.
Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic estimates that recent tariffs on Chinese goods, alongside steel and aluminum imports, would raise construction material prices by up to nine percent.
Prices of appliances could also surge up to 15 percent, she said.
Trump’s tariffs attract retaliation too, and countermeasures triggered more than $27 billion in US agricultural export losses from mid-2018 to late-2019.
The Tax Foundation said: “Based on actual revenue collections data, trade war tariffs have directly increased tax collections by $200 to $300 annually per US household, on average.”
These estimates do not account for “lower incomes as tariffs shrink output, nor the loss in consumer choice” as buyers seek tariff-free alternatives, it added.
By AFP
March 31, 2025
Beiyi SEOW
US President Donald Trump has made tariffs a cornerstone of his trade policy, insisting that they will revive American manufacturing while swelling government coffers.
Critics argue that the levies will boost inflation in the near term and weigh on growth, triggering a trade war that could inflict serious damage on the United States and the wider global economy.
Trump has imposed tariffs on major trading partners Canada, Mexico and China since returning to the presidency while slapping fresh duties on steel and aluminum imports, with more to come on what he dubbed “Liberation Day” this Wednesday.
– What are tariffs? –
Tariffs are fees that importing businesses pay for their purchases of foreign goods.
When tariffs are imposed, companies must choose between forking out more for foreign goods — and potentially passing those costs on to consumers — or looking for alternatives.
The levies bring in revenue for governments imposing them and are commonly used to protect local companies and workers from competition abroad.
The charges can make domestic goods more cost-competitive, encouraging buyers to select local producers instead.
– Arguments for –
Trump’s position is that with tariffs on key imports, companies will move more manufacturing to the United States — or buy US-made products — to avoid additional fees.
A commonly-used example is the “chicken tax” of the 1960s, when president Lyndon Johnson pushed back against European tariffs on American poultry with a levy on imported trucks.
Today, a 25 percent US tariff remains on light trucks and this is a key reason that most pick-up trucks sold in the country are built in North America.
The White House says new tariffs could also bring in more than $6 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade — about $600 billion per year — although it has yet to release its full plans.
While US-based companies generally pay the tariffs, White House officials have argued that foreign sellers would absorb the hike by lowering their prices as they seek to do business with the world’s biggest economy.
Supporters of Trump’s trade policy also say that tariffs did not cause widespread inflation during his first White House term.
– Arguments against –
But economists warn that tariff hikes can bring economic pain to affected sectors, and Trump’s stop-start approach to announcing levies has sent financial markets tumbling.
If companies are unable to absorb additional fees and foreign sellers decline to lower their prices, the burden of tariffs could flow to other firms or consumers.
Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on autos and parts could cause the price of a typical car to surge by $5,000 to $10,000, said Wedbush analysts.
Even US automakers producing cars in the country use up to 50 percent of foreign auto parts, they said.
“It would take three years to move 10 percent of the auto supply chain to the US and cost hundreds of billions with much complexity and disruption,” Wedbush added.
Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic estimates that recent tariffs on Chinese goods, alongside steel and aluminum imports, would raise construction material prices by up to nine percent.
Prices of appliances could also surge up to 15 percent, she said.
Trump’s tariffs attract retaliation too, and countermeasures triggered more than $27 billion in US agricultural export losses from mid-2018 to late-2019.
The Tax Foundation said: “Based on actual revenue collections data, trade war tariffs have directly increased tax collections by $200 to $300 annually per US household, on average.”
These estimates do not account for “lower incomes as tariffs shrink output, nor the loss in consumer choice” as buyers seek tariff-free alternatives, it added.
\
Trump says US tariffs to hit ‘all countries’
By AFP
March 31, 2025
Steel and aluminium exporting nations are bracing for fresh tariffs by the Trump administration - Copyright AFP Julio Cesar AGUILAR
President Donald Trump said Sunday the tariffs he plans to impose in the coming days would include “all countries,” not just those with the largest trade imbalances with the United States.
Trump has promised a “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he is set to unveil reciprocal levies to address trade practices that his government deems unfair.
“You’d start with all countries, so let’s see what happens,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One, dashing hopes he might scale back some of the threatened levies or that they would target a select group with persistent trade imbalances.
“I haven’t heard a rumor about 15 countries, 10 or 15,” he said when asked which nations would be affected.
“Essentially all of the countries that we’re talking about. We’ve been talking about all countries, not a cutoff,” he said, without giving details.
Trump’s upcoming tariff salvo had been expected to target the 15 percent of partners that have persistent trade imbalances with the United States, a group Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called a “Dirty 15.”
But despite widening the target, the president insisted his tariffs would be more “generous” than those levied against the United States.
“The tariffs will be far more generous than those countries were to us, meaning they will be kinder than those countries were to the United States of America over the decades,” he said.
“They ripped us off like no country has ever been ripped off in history and we’re going to be much nicer than they were to us. But it’s substantial money for the country nevertheless,” he said.
Trump has promised a “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he is set to unveil reciprocal levies to address trade practices that his government deems unfair – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP WIN MCNAMEE
Trump has already slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and additional levies on imports from China.
Tariffs on imported autos are also due to take effect on April 3.
Trump’s top trade aide Peter Navarro said the tax on auto imports could raise $100 billion a year.
“And in addition, the other tariffs are going to raise about $600 billion a year, about $6 trillion over a 10-year period,” Navarro told Fox New Sunday.
Trump’s plans to unleash a wide range of reciprocal tariffs risk a global trade war, with other countries already vowing to retaliate and economists warning the sweeping moves risk stoking inflation and triggering a downturn.
Trump has defended the levies as a way to raise government revenue and revitalize US industry.
By AFP
March 31, 2025
Steel and aluminium exporting nations are bracing for fresh tariffs by the Trump administration - Copyright AFP Julio Cesar AGUILAR
President Donald Trump said Sunday the tariffs he plans to impose in the coming days would include “all countries,” not just those with the largest trade imbalances with the United States.
Trump has promised a “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he is set to unveil reciprocal levies to address trade practices that his government deems unfair.
“You’d start with all countries, so let’s see what happens,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One, dashing hopes he might scale back some of the threatened levies or that they would target a select group with persistent trade imbalances.
“I haven’t heard a rumor about 15 countries, 10 or 15,” he said when asked which nations would be affected.
“Essentially all of the countries that we’re talking about. We’ve been talking about all countries, not a cutoff,” he said, without giving details.
Trump’s upcoming tariff salvo had been expected to target the 15 percent of partners that have persistent trade imbalances with the United States, a group Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called a “Dirty 15.”
But despite widening the target, the president insisted his tariffs would be more “generous” than those levied against the United States.
“The tariffs will be far more generous than those countries were to us, meaning they will be kinder than those countries were to the United States of America over the decades,” he said.
“They ripped us off like no country has ever been ripped off in history and we’re going to be much nicer than they were to us. But it’s substantial money for the country nevertheless,” he said.
Trump has promised a “Liberation Day” on April 2, when he is set to unveil reciprocal levies to address trade practices that his government deems unfair – Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP WIN MCNAMEE
Trump has already slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and additional levies on imports from China.
Tariffs on imported autos are also due to take effect on April 3.
Trump’s top trade aide Peter Navarro said the tax on auto imports could raise $100 billion a year.
“And in addition, the other tariffs are going to raise about $600 billion a year, about $6 trillion over a 10-year period,” Navarro told Fox New Sunday.
Trump’s plans to unleash a wide range of reciprocal tariffs risk a global trade war, with other countries already vowing to retaliate and economists warning the sweeping moves risk stoking inflation and triggering a downturn.
Trump has defended the levies as a way to raise government revenue and revitalize US industry.
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