April 2, 2025 – Liberation Day tariff announcements

CNN

Last week, United States President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on every country in the world, arguing that they were ripping off the U.S. On Wednesday, April 2, Trump stood outside the White House, declaring it “Liberation Day,” holding a chart of tariff rates with those on the left being the existing tariffs against the U.S. and the right being the tariffs that the Trump administration was putting into effect.

Trump based his tariffs on an “export/import x 100” formula, which caused high tariffs on poor resource exporters like Lesotho. Research shows that even this math didn’t make sense, with some of the tariff rates being completely random. 

The tariffs started at a 10% baseline with countries like the UK, Australia, Turkey, and Singapore, among others. The EU meanwhile faced a tariff rate of 20%. Norway faced a rate of 15%. Israel, which removed all tariffs on U.S. products right before the Trump tariffs came into effect, still faced a tariff of 17%. Some countries faced even harsher rates, with Japan getting 24%, South Korea getting 25%, and India getting 26%. Nine countries and the Falkland Island territories received rates of more than 40%. 

One of the more humorous cases was the 10% tariff on the Heard and McDonald Islands, located in the Indian Ocean, uninhabited by humans and consisting entirely of penguins and seals. Due to the lack of human inhabitants, the island also lacks exports to the U.S., meaning the tariffs likely won’t be very effective.

However, on the more serious end, the tariffs marked a very serious escalation in the antagonistic trade policy between the U.S. and China. The U.S. and China began taking a more aggressive trade policy in Trump’s first term. Trump has been a proponent of tariffs since the 1980s. Back then, he advocated them in response to the economic success of the Japanese, who he said were undercutting American competitiveness.

In the 1980s, the Democrats, traditionally the party of labour and the working class, advocated a more protectionist policy. In the 1988 Presidential Election, Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis took the position of a more protectionist policy against incumbent Vice President (and winner of that year’s election) George H.W. Bush, who was a proponent of free trade and lifting trade restrictions. 

However in the 1980s and 1990s, as Western economies transitioned to service economies, manufacturing was outsourced to the Global South with its less stringent regulation and cheaper cost of labour. Additionally, with the collapse of Communism in the 1990s, more and more economies opened up to foreign investment and labour. This brought the West cheaper goods and tremendous wealth but accelerated the decline of industry heavy regions such as the American Rust Belt, Northern England factory towns, Southern Wallonia in Belgium, and Germany’s Rhine-Ruhr. 

Left and Right populists had railed against the free trade system for decades when, upon running for President in 2016, Trump brought the discussion back to the mainstream. Trump’s promise to bring jobs back to the U.S. won him several Rust Belt States that had voted Democrat previously, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In his first term, Trump imposed a series of tariffs and restrictions on China, which were not touched by his successor (then predecessor) Joe Biden. Upon coming back to power, he imposed another 10% tariff on China. Now on April 2, he imposed another 34% tariff. Chinese tariffs were now at 54%.

China’s response was swift. It promised retaliatory tariffs and blocked the export of several rare earth metals to the U.S. China imposed an 84% tariff on the U.S. as retaliation. After a series of tit-for-tat tariffs, the U.S. has now announced tariffs of 145% on China, while China has a tariff rate of 125% on U.S. products. 

Meanwhile, following several days of economic collapse and the stock market crashing following the Trump tariffs, the Trump administration has proposed a 30-day pause on tariffs on other nations. The exception to this is China, the U.S.’ biggest trade rival who it seems only to be escalating with. 

The consequences of the tariffs remain to be fully seen, but in the last few days, we saw trillions of dollars of wealth vanish, markets across the world collapse, and nations scramble as we brace ourselves for a new economic order. 

Ukraine captures two Chinese nationals fighting for Russia

BBC

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the capture of the Chinese nationals on April 8. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that the presence of Chinese nationals calls into question Beijing’s supposed “stand for peace.” 

Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign ministry has claimed that it is verifying the situation and has warned its nationals to avoid foreign conflicts.

Ukraine has made allegations that there are more than two Chinese soldiers, a claim the Chinese government has vehemently denied. Assuming these men were not acting on the Chinese government’s orders, their capture could risk Chinese neutrality.

Zelenskyy said identity documents, bank cards and personal data were found in the possession of the two men captured, and that the SBU, Ukraine’s primary domestic intelligence agency, was verifying the facts. A few hundred Chinese nationals are thought to have travelled to fight as mercenaries with the Russian army alongside others from Nepal and various Central Asian countries. 

China is not the only foreign nation whose soldiers have gotten involved in the war. Previously, it was reported that North Korean soldiers were fighting alongside Russian soldiers against Ukrainians. The status of the Chinese soldiers is different to that of the North Koreans who were deployed on the frontline after a political agreement between Pyongyang and Moscow.

Despite China’s alliance with Russia, it has attempted to portray itself as a neutral party that isn’t directly supporting the Russian war effort. China has also denied supplying Moscow with military equipment. Both sides have previously benefited from Chinese-made weapons and equipment, including the Mavic Drones made by Chinese manufacturer DJI. Ukraine, for its part, has been working to reduce its dependence on Chinese supplies. 

Additionally, China has aimed to maintain good relations with European powers through its economic and military ties with the EU. As tensions with the United States have been increasing, China benefits by leveraging support from the U.S’ European allies. Coupled with the U.S.’ threats toward Europe, it has presented China an opportunity to present itself as a stable alternative to the transatlantic alliance. This also comes as the U.S. and Russia improve relations. However, should Beijing be found directly aiding Moscow’s war effort with its own citizens, it could present a major setback in European-Chinese relations. 

The involvement of additional countries such as China also jeopardises ongoing negotiations which the U.S. has pressured Ukraine to take part in. Ukraine has made the case that the participation of Chinese civilians shows Russia has no interest in a peace agreement. This comes after limited progress has been made in the past two months as part of ceasefire negotiations. 

The increased presence of foreign powers risks escalating the Ukraine War into spiralling further. Additionally, as U.S. support becomes less certain, and some European countries have suggested sending European peacekeeper troops to Ukraine, the conflict becomes more and more delicate. 

Critics of supporting Ukraine have often accused the war of being a proxy between U.S. and EU interests against Russian interests. Many warn that the war could spiral and drag major powers into it. Experts warn that dragging in foreign fighters presents a dangerous opportunity for escalation. While that has thus far not happened, potential involvement by the Chinese directly on the battlefield would change the nature of the war entirely.