Trump's Trade Wars and Tariffs Spark Global Concerns

President Donald Trump's confrontation with Harvard University marks a new stage in his administration's campaign against elite universities, threatening the nation's most economically dynamic metropolitan areas and America's global competitiveness. Elite research universities have driven growth in regions like Boston, Austin, and Silicon Valley, producing scientific breakthroughs and skilled graduates who fuel cutting-edge industries. Trump's actions, including terminating research grants and deporting international students, could stall this economic engine and harm the nation's international competitiveness, particularly against China. The government-academia-business partnership has been crucial to America's scientific and technological advances, and Trump's assault on top research institutions may be seen as a profound act of unilateral disarmament in the global competition for 21st-century economic supremacy.

The US has exempted certain electronics, including smartphones and laptops, from reciprocal tariffs as part of a trade dispute with China. The exemption, announced by the Trump administration, includes 20 product categories such as computers, semiconductor devices, and flat panel displays, and is aimed at keeping prices down for consumer items mainly produced in East Asian countries and China.

Britain's decision to leave the European Union, known as Brexit, has been likened to a "startling act of economic self-harm" and is now being watched by the country with a sense of queasy recognition as President Trump imposes similar tariffs on the US. The UK's experience, nearly nine years after the Brexit referendum, has been marked by a 15% decline in overall trade volume and a 4% decrease in long-term productivity compared to if it had remained in the EU. Trump's tariffs have sparked concerns of recession and inflation, and his abrupt reversal of some tariffs last week recalled Britain's own experience with a short-lived prime minister, Liz Truss, who was forced to retreat from radical tax cuts that frightened the markets. Experts warn that the US may face similar economic instability under Trump's policies, with the bond market already showing signs of anxiety. The Brexit experience has also had a lasting impact on British politics, dividing and radicalizing the Conservative Party, and may have diminished the UK's influence on the diplomatic stage.

President Trump signaled that he would pursue new tariffs on computer chips inside smartphones and other technologies, just two days after his administration excluded electronics from steep import taxes on Chinese goods. The administration is expected to take the first step toward enacting new tariffs next week by opening an investigation into the effects of semiconductor imports on national security. Trump's top economic advisers framed the recent exemptions as temporary, saying that semiconductors would be subject to their own tariffs under a different regime. The potential for new tariffs on chips threatens to cast another pall over the tech industry and could make it more expensive for US companies to produce smartphones and other devices.

Cambodia has offered to slash import taxes on 19 US product categories from 35 to 5 per cent in an attempt to de-escalate trade tensions with the US, following Donald Trump's threat of tariffs on Southeast Asian countries. However, analysts warn that this move may not be enough to placate the Trump administration, which is known for its transactional approach to trade. The US had initially announced a 49 per cent tariff on Cambodian imports before delaying the measure by 90 days.