Negotiations continue after the entry into force of new American prices

States continue to negotiate with Washington on Thursday in the hope of reducing the impact of massive surcharge now imposed on their products by Donald Trump, who intends to reshape international trade for the benefit of the United States.

Applied since 0.01 a.m., these surcharges replace, for the main trade partners of the United States, the customs duties of 10 % set up in April, which however remain in force for more than a hundred countries.

They are intended, according to the American president, to rebalance the exchanges between the United States and their partners, which benefitaccording to him, of the first economic power.

It is midnight !!! Billions of dollars in customs duties are now flocking to the United States of America.

These surcharges are in a large fork, between 15 % and 41 %.

Among the partners targeted by the highest rates, Switzerland has always been trying in recent days to negotiate with Washington, in the hope of lowering the surcharge by 39 % now applied to Swiss products.

As a sign of good will, Bern announced Thursday not to consider for the moment reprisals on American products.

The South African government has announced that President Cyril Ramaphosa had maintained himself with his American counterpart on Wednesday, Pretoria assuring that The two leaders have undertaken to continue their discussions.

South Africa is the country in sub -Saharan Africa the hardest targeted, with additional customs duties of 30 % now imposed on its exports.

Before the entry into force of these new taxes, the average effective rate applied to products entering the United States was already 18.4 %, the highest since 1933, according to the Center for Research Budget Lab from Yale University.

This rate should now stand at almost 20 %, according to analysts Pantheon Macroeconomics.

And new announcements are expected, since the tenant of the White House also wishes to tax imported pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

The latter, as well as the chips, should be applied a 100 %tax, he said on Wednesday.

More predictability

Wall Street However, did not seem particularly worried about this new stage, the indices on the New York Stock Exchange opening up on Thursday, following the trend observed in the European markets.

Investors believe that the entry into force of these customs rights provides more certainties and observe that a number of exceptions have been added, depending on the country, reducing the amplitude of surcharges.

For the time being, when the United States government assured that Dozens of agreements would have been signed in recent months, just seven have materialized, especially with theEuropean UnionJapan and the United Kingdom.

They are most often pre-academic, to be formalized, accompanied by promises of massive investments in the United States.

A sign that everything does not seem finalized yet, Tokyo and Washington have expressed a different reading in recent hours on how 15 % is now applied to Japanese products. Japan sees it as a ceiling (if the previous customs duties were less than 15 %), while the United States pointed out that it came to the preexisting taxes.

The truce in the trade war with China also remains in force, the first two world economies having granted last month on the maintenance of a price break in order to continue their negotiations: additional American customs duties on Chinese products are temporarily fixed at 30 %, while Chinese taxes on American imports remain at 10 %.

Scheduled to expire on August 12, the truce should be extended 90 additional daysestimated on Fox Business Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, This is my feeling.

President Trump praised the merits of the agreements already concluded, which inflates the public revenues of a largely indebted economy.

Its Minister of Commerce, Howard Lunick, said on Thursday on Fox Business That new customs duties could bring $ 50 billion in the United States each month. These are incredible figures. And no one retaliateshe praised.

The impact of these import taxes, however, continues to worry economists, who see them inflation and slow growth in the United States, with employment effects.