Donald Trump faced a backlash from business groups and some in his own Republican party after kicking off a trade war by imposing steep tariffs on three of the US’s largest trading partners.
Trade associations representing consumer goods, oil, groceries and automakers lined up to warn that Trump’s new tariffs — which included 10 per cent tariffs on imports from China, 25 per cent on all imports from Mexico and Canada, with a lower 10 per cent levy for Canadian energy — would push up prices for ordinary Americans and cause chaos in supply chains.
“The president is right to focus on major problems like our broken border and the scourge of fentanyl, but the imposition of tariffs . . . won’t solve these problems, and will only raise prices for American families,” said John Murphy, senior vice-president of the US Chamber of Commerce, the US’s largest business group.