President Donald Trump has unveiled plans for sweeping new import taxes on all goods entering the US, in a watershed moment for global trade.The plan sets a baseline tariff on all imports of at least 10%, consistent with a proposal Trump made on the campaign last year. Items from countries that the White House described as the “worst offenders”, including the European Union and China would face higher rates for what Trump said was payback for unfair trade policies.Trump’s move breaks with decades of American policy embracing free trade, and analysts said it was likely to lead to higher prices in the US and slower growth in the US and around the world. The White House said officials would start charging the 10% tariffs on 5 April, with the higher duties starting on 9 April. “It’s our declaration of economic independence,” Trump said in the White House Rose Garden against a backdrop of US flags.He argued that other countries were taking advantage of the US by charging high tariffs and erecting other trade barriers against American exports. Declaring a national emergency, the Republican president said the US had for more than five decades been “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike”.”Today we are standing up for the American worker and we are finally putting America first,” he said, calling it “one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history.”On the campaign trail last year, Trump called for new tariffs that he said would raise money for the government and boost manufacturing, promising a new age of US prosperity.He has spent weeks previewing Wednesday’s announcement, which follows other orders raising tariffs on imports from China, foreign cars, steel and aluminiu …
