United States President Donald Trump has unveiled his long-anticipated “reciprocal tariffs”, in a move that is expected to shake up global trade relations.

On Wednesday, Trump appeared in the White House Rose Garden, where the colonnades had been decorated with large US flags, to sign executive orders authorising the tariffs.

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He framed the tax hikes on foreign imports as a blow against unfair trade practices, painting a portrait of the US as a country exploited even by its closest allies.

“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” Trump told an audience of manufacturing workers, cabinet members and journalists.

“ Foreign leaders have stolen our jobs. Foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories. And foreign scavengers have torn apart our once-beautiful American dream.”

But he proclaimed that Wednesday would mark a turning point in US history, marking an end to the “vicious attacks” he said the country had weathered.

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“ April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day American’s destiny was reclaimed,” Trump said.

Invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, Trump announced a 10-percent tariff on all countries, scheduled to take effect on April 5.

Then, he revealed there would be “individualised” tariffs for countries with that have the largest trade deficits with the US. Those tariffs would come into effect four days later, on April 9.

Trump explained that his team calculated the “individualised” tariffs by taking half of what he claimed those countries charged the US for its exports.

“ We will charge them approximately half of what they are — and have — been charging us. So the tariffs will be not full reciprocal,” Trump said. “I could have done that I guess, but it would’ve been tough for a lot of countries. We didn’t want to do that.”

He then beckoned Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to the Rose Garden podium with an chart that illustrated some of the upcoming tariffs.

The graph showed the European Union was headed for 20-percent tariffs. China, meanwhile, had been assigned 34 percent. Vietnam would receive 46 percent, and Thailand 36 percent.

Noticeably absent were Mexico and Canada, the US’s two largest trading partners and its immediate neighbours.

Those countries, the White House explained, would remain under punitive tariffs, designed to bring them in line with Trump’s policies on border security.

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All goods not covered under the US-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement would face a 25-percent tariff, with the exception of energy products. They face 10-percent tariffs.

Wednesday’s announcement, while widely expected, still sent shockwaves across the globe.

“Long story short, this is a historic moment,” said Dan Ciuriak, the director of the Canada-based Ciuriak Consulting firm, giving a nod to the isolationist policies of the Trump administration.

“I think it will reshape the world. I think we are seeing the possibility of the emergence of something like a ‘Fortress North America’.”

He noted that poorer countries in places like southeast Asia appear to be among the hardest hit by the impending tariffs.

“ The developing countries have been hit by very, very high tariffs. And that will have geopolitical ramifications,” Ciuriak said.

“These countries are the poorest in the world, and the notion that they have been getting rich on the back of American workers is not very tenable. I don’t think that this is going to play well in the rest of the world. So we will see, I think, tectonic shifts in international relations as a result of that.”