Turbulence expected from Trump’s global trade wars

Bad for business: Trump and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb 10. Malaysia may well face economic and financial turbulence if Trump carries out his threat of imposing a 20% reciprocal tariff on all US imports. — Bloomberg

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has often said that the word “tariff” is “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”. Accordingly, he touched off a trade war against the United States’ three biggest trading partners, Canada, Mexico and China, all of whom imposed retaliatory trade measures against his country.

Trump also imposed a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports to the US, which led to the European Union taking retaliatory trade action on US industrial and farm products.