Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the White House’s latest trade measure, European commitments to Kyiv, and a potential turning point in Sudan’s civil war.
Green Light Auto Duties
U.S. President Donald Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on imported automobiles on Wednesday, to begin on April 3. While the White House expects to raise $100 billion in revenue annually by promoting domestic car manufacturing, economists fear that the latest trade war escalation will strain global supply chains and hike inflation.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the White House’s latest trade measure, European commitments to Kyiv, and a potential turning point in Sudan’s civil war.
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Green Light Auto Duties
U.S. President Donald Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on imported automobiles on Wednesday, to begin on April 3. While the White House expects to raise $100 billion in revenue annually by promoting domestic car manufacturing, economists fear that the latest trade war escalation will strain global supply chains and hike inflation.
“We’re looking at much higher vehicle prices,” Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told The Associated Press. “We’re going to see reduced choice. … These kinds of taxes fall more heavily on the middle and working class.’’
If Trump’s taxes are fully passed onto consumers and not swallowed by carmakers, then the average price for imported vehicles could skyrocket by $12,500. However, a partial exemption will be given to vehicles and car parts that comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s rules of origin—but only for what is produced in the United States.
Wall Street was quick to feel the hit on Thursday, with General Motors stock falling more than 7 percent, Ford losing nearly 4 percent, and car parts manufacturers Aptiv and BorgWarner each shedding about 5 percent. In 2024, the United States imported nearly 8 million cars and light trucks worth $244 billion.
Auto tariffs are just the latest in a slew of White House duties aimed at virtually all of Washington’s trade partners. Already, the Trump administration has imposed:
That is not including the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs that the United States will impose on April 2, the day before auto levies go into effect; impending 25 percent tariffs on all goods from countries that import oil from Venezuela, even though the United States is one of those countries; a threatened 200 percent tariff on alcoholic beverages from the European Union; and expected duties on computer chips, pharmaceuticals, lumber, and copper.
“LIBERATION DAY IN AMERICA IS COMING, SOON,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday, referring to the April 2 reciprocal tariffs. “FOR YEARS WE HAVE BEEN RIPPED OFF BY VIRTUALLY EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, BOTH FRIEND AND FOE. BUT THOSE DAYS ARE OVER—AMERICA FIRST!!!”
Foreign leaders lambasted Trump’s latest auto tariffs as part of a larger U.S. effort to worsen a global trade war. “I am very concerned about the behavior of the American government,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday while visiting Japan. “I am concerned because free trade is being harmed, and I am concerned because multilateralism is weakened.”
The United States is the biggest destination for Japanese car exports. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he wants Japan to be exempt from such tariffs, but the country’s trade minister failed to secure relief during a trip to Washington earlier this month.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned once again that tariffs are “bad for businesses, worse for consumers,” and South Korea’s industry minister said Seoul’s auto sector is expected to face “considerable difficulties.”
But Canada—long the target of aggressive U.S. trade measures—had one of the most explosive warnings. “This is a very direct attack,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday. “We will defend our workers. We will defend our companies. We will defend our country.” Autos are Canada’s second-largest export after energy.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Coalition of the willing. European leaders reaffirmed their commitment to Ukraine during a “coalition of the willing” meeting in Paris on Thursday. This was the group’s third such summit, during which officials discussed ways to guarantee Kyiv’s security as part of a possible future peace plan, such as by deploying a “reassurance” force to deter future Russian aggression.
Several nations appeared interested in such a proposal, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday. However, Macron added, “we do not need unanimity to achieve it,” even as some countries shift away from military promises and more toward political or logistical aid.
On Tuesday, the White House negotiated separate Black Sea cease-fire deals with Russia and Ukraine as part of a Trump-led effort to end the three-year war. But much of Europe remains unconvinced that these actions will amount to much. “They are playing games, and they’re playing for time,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday, referring to Moscow. “We can’t let them drag this out while they continue prosecuting their illegal invasion.”
As part of the Tuesday agreement, the United States agreed to help the Kremlin regain access to global markets, which could potentially include easing sanctions. But at the Paris summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that such actions “would be a disaster for diplomacy.”
“Khartoum is free.” The Sudanese army pivoted fighting on Thursday toward the city of Omdurman after its forces declared total control over the capital. Ousting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces from Khartoum on Wednesday marked a potential turning point in the nearly two-year civil war that has killed some 61,000 people in the capital and displaced millions of others across Sudan.
Still, fighting remains heavy across large swaths of the Darfur region, the Kordofan region, and Gezira state. Neither side has expressed interest in a peace settlement yet, and reports of strikes on civilians continue to grow; on Wednesday, United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk said he was “deeply shocked” by news that hundreds of people were killed in an attack on a market in the town of Tora this week.
Unwanted visitors. Trump said on Wednesday that the United States will “go as far as we have to go” to take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory coveted for its mineral wealth and strategic location. The U.S. president has made this threat before, but Wednesday’s comment comes one day before senior U.S. officials—including Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha; National Security Advisor Mike Waltz; and Energy Secretary Chris Wright—travel to the island for an unsolicited, private trip.
Greenlandic authorities have denounced the visit as “highly aggressive,” saying the U.S. delegation was not invited to the territory; Trump has previously declined to rule out using military force or economic coercion to acquire Greenland. According to local media, the White House has scaled back its planned visit on Friday after U.S. officials were unable to find anyone in the capital of Nuuk willing to meet the second lady. The delegation is now planning to just visit the Pituffik U.S. military space base.
Odds and Ends
An Italian lawmaker proposed new legislation this week that would have all newborns automatically receive their birth mother’s surname. Such a measure would be “compensation for a centuries-old injustice,” Democratic Party member Dario Franceschini wrote on X on Tuesday. In Italy, children automatically receive their biological father’s surname; in 2022, Rome’s constitutional court said newborns should receive both parents’ names, but legislation required to implement the ruling was never approved.
Far-right parliamentarians, however, are outraged by the bill. “Here are the great priorities of the Italian left,” far-right League leader Matteo Salvini wrote on X. “Of course, let’s wipe these fathers off the face of the earth; that way we’ll solve all the problems.”
The post Trump’s Proposed Auto Tariffs Plunge Wall Street, Foreign Markets Into Turmoil appeared first on Foreign Policy.
