Trump places new tariffs on select African nations

United States President Donald Trump has put new tariffs on 20 countries set to begin in seven days.

According to Africanews, Trump signed the sweeping executive order on Thursday, the day before the end of a months-long pause on the first round of tariffs announced on April 2nd.

With the historic new trade barriers, Trump retains a 10 percent baseline tariff for countries where the U.S has a trade surplus and applies a minimum 15 percent tariff on countries where the U.S has a trade deficit.

“President Trump is using tariffs as a necessary and powerful tool to put America First after many years of unsustainable trade deficits that threaten our economy and national security,” the White House said in a statement.

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The administration also said that it would wait a week to put the new tariffs into effect, to have time to prepare systems for the new duties.

See how your country is affected in the list below:

African countries not on the list will maintain the 10 percent baseline tariff that the White House announced in April.

Algeria, Libya and South Africa round off the top three African countries with the highest U.S tariff rates after Thursday’s announcement.

Ties between the U.S and South Africa have experienced severe strains in recent months after Trump accused South Africa of discriminating against its white minority. A claim that has been repeatedly denied by SA President Ramaphosa.

Lesotho avoided a disaster with a 15 percent tariff rate, down from 50 percent in April. Yet, that might not be enough to save the country’s waning textile industry, which suffered greatly under the first round of tariffs.

Many more countries outside Africa were targeted by the Thursday’s tariffs, with Laos, Myanmar and Syria all receiving rates over 40 percent.

In addition to the country-specific tariffs, the White House said it would also establish a 40 percent additional penalty on so-called transshipments.

Those are goods that are shipped from a high-tariff country to a low-tariff country before being sent to the United States.

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