Trump unveils sweeping global tariffs, including 17% US import duty on Israeli goods

US President Donald Trump has unveiled a raft of punishing tariffs targeting countries around the world including some of its closest trading partners, in a move that risks sparking a ruinous trade war.

The tariffs include a 17 percent duty on Israeli products imported to the United States. Israel sought to prevent the move with the directive that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed Tuesday to immediately scrap all remaining tariffs on American imports.

“Israel steals a lot of intellectual property from, for example, the pharmaceutical manufacturers in this country,” an administration official told reporters ahead of Trump’s speech.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden against a backdrop of US flags, Trump slaps the most stinging tariffs on China and the European Union on what he calls “Liberation Day.”

“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” Trump says.

Trump reserves some of the heaviest blows for what he called the “nations that treat us badly,” including 34 percent on goods from superpower rival China, 20 percent on key ally the European Union and 24 percent on Japan.

But the 78-year-old Republican — who holds up a chart with a list of levies — says that he is “very kind” and so is only imposing half the amount that those countries tax US exports.

For the rest, Trump says he will impose a “baseline” tariff of 10 percent, including Britain.

An audience of cabinet members, as well as workers in hard hats from industries including steel, oil and gas, whoop and cheer as Trump says the tariffs will “make America wealthy again.”

“This is Liberation Day,” Trump says, adding that it would “forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed.”

FULL LIST: Liberation Day pic.twitter.com/ZBiRuJBCAr

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 2, 2025