US senators were set to vote Saturday on unlocking trillions of dollars for sweeping tax cuts promised by President Donald Trump, despite bitter infighting among the majority Republicans over the savings that will be needed to fund them.The row comes with Wall Street leading a global markets bloodbath as countries around the world reel from Trump’s trade war, and Democrats argue that now is not the time to be entertaining significantly reduced government spending.But the Senate’s Republican leadership was just as concerned with friendly fire from its own disgruntled rank and file as it prepared for the make-or-break vote on a Trump-backed “budget resolution” that kick-starts negotiations on how to usher the president’s domestic agenda into law.Senate and House Republicans have been at loggerheads over how deeply to wield the knife, with lawmakers already wary of public anger over an unprecedented downsizing of the federal bureaucracy led by Trump’s tech billionaire advisor Elon Musk.Both chambers need to adopt identical versions of the budget blueprint — a task that has proven beyond them during months of fraught talks — before they can draft Trump’s giant bill to extend his first-term tax cuts and boost border security and energy production.”This resolution is the first step toward a final bill to make permanent the tax relief we implemented in 2017 and deliver a transformational investment in our border, national, and energy security – all accompanied by substantial savings,” Republican Senate leader John Thune said. Senators were locked in an all-night session to vote on dozens of proposed tweaks to the plan — some of which were aimed at forcing Republicans onto the record over Trump’s tariffs on imports from countries around the world.- ‘Vote-a-rama’ -They hoped to move to a vote on final passage later Saturday morning, although the timetable depends on how quickly the upper chamber of Congress can get through its marathon so-called “vote-a-rama” on the amendments.If the plan gets through the Senate, it will still need approval by the House, with Republican leaders desperate to get it to Trump’s desk before Congress begins a two-week Easter break next Friday.Democrats have slammed the framework, claiming it will trigger further major cuts to essential services.The proposal would raise the country’s borrowing limit by $5 trillion to avoid a debt default this summer, staving off the need for a further hike until after the 2026 midterm elections.Experts say the tax cuts — which would greatly expand the relief agreed in 2017 — could add in excess of $5 trillion to national debt over the next decade.The libertarian Cato Institute called the resolution a “fiscal train wreck” that “actively worsens our nation’s debt trajectory.”Trump, who has been talking up the plan on social media, offered his “complete and total support” for the text at a White House event on Wednesday.But Senate and House Republicans are oceans apart on spending cuts, with the upper chamber looking for modest savings of $4 billion, while House leadership is demanding a reduction of $1.5 trillion. Republican Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina was asked about supporting the Senate resolution and told reporters: “To me, it’s dead on arrival.”

Long before Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement, the United States had toyed with imposing high tariffs throughout its history, with inconclusive — and sometimes catastrophic — results.”We have a 20th century president in a 21st century economy who wants to take us back to the 19th century,” Dartmouth College economics professor Douglas Irwin posted on X.The 19th century marked the golden age of tariffs in the United States, with an average rate regularly flirting with 50 percent.The century extended a doctrine adopted since the country’s founding, which advocated for the protection of the American economy as it underwent a period of industrialization.”Careful studies of that period suggest that the tariffs did help protect domestic development of industry to some degree,” said Keith Maskus, a professor at the University of Colorado.”But the two more important factors were access to international labor, and capital… which was flowing in the United States during that period,” he added.Christopher Meissner, a professor at the University of California, Davis, told AFP that in addition to these factors, “the reason we had a thriving industrial sector in the United States was we had great access to natural resources.”These resources included coal, oil, iron ore, copper and timber — all of which were crucial to industry. “The industrial sector wouldn’t have been much smaller if we had much lower tariffs,” Meissner added. Shortly after taking office in January, Trump said: “We were at our richest from 1870 to 1913.”The 78-year-old Republican often references former US president William McKinley, who was behind one of the country’s most restrictive tariff laws, which passed in 1890.These tariffs did not prevent imports from continuing to grow in the years that followed, although once customs duties were lowered in 1894, the amount of goods the US purchased abroad remained below previous peaks.- Great Depression -In 1929, Harvard professor George Roorbach wrote: “Since the end of the Civil War (1865), during which the United States has been under a protective system almost, if not quite, without interruption, our import trade has enormously expanded.””Fluctuations that have occurred seem to be related chiefly to factors other than the ups and downs of tariff rates,” he added.A year later, the young nation tightened the screws with tariffs again, this time under Republican president Herbert Hoover.The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 is best remembered “for triggering a global trade war and deepening the Great Depression,” according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.”What generated the depression… was a lot of complicated factors, but the tariff increase is one of them,” said Maskus from the University of Colorado.The end of the Second World War marked the start of a new era in trade, defined by the ratification in 1947 by 23 countries — including the United States — of the GATT free trade agreement. The agreement created the conditions for the development of international trade by imposing more moderate customs duties.The momentum was maintained by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico and Canada, which took effect in 1994.Alongside NAFTA, free trade in the United States was further expanded by the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995, and a 2004 free trade agreement between the United States and several Central American countries. During his first term in office, Donald Trump reopened the tariff ledger and decided on new measures against China, many of which were maintained under his successor, Joe Biden.But despite these levies, the US trade deficit with China continued to grow until 2022, when China was hit by a brutal economic slowdown unrelated to the tariffs.For Keith Maskus, the tariffs on Beijing did not do much to prevent the growth of imports from China.

US President Donald Trump’s widest-ranging tariffs to date took effect Saturday, in a move which could trigger retaliation and escalating trade tensions that could upset the global economy.A 10 percent “baseline” tariff came into place past midnight, hitting most US imports except goods from Mexico and Canada as Trump invoked emergency economic powers to address perceived problems with the country’s trade deficits.The trade gaps, said the White House, were driven by an “absence of reciprocity” in relationships and other policies like “exorbitant value-added taxes.”Come April 9, around 60 trading partners — including the European Union, Japan and China — are set to face even higher rates tailored to each economy.Already, Trump’s sharp 34-percent tariff on Chinese goods, set to kick in next week, triggered Beijing’s announcement of its own 34-percent tariff on US products from April 10.Beijing also said it would sue the United States at the World Trade Organization and restrict export of rare earth elements used in high-end medical and electronics technology.But other major trading partners held back as they digested the unfolding international standoff and fears of a recession.Trump warned Friday on social media that “China played it wrong,” saying this was something “they cannot afford to do.”- Markets collapse -Wall Street went into freefall Friday, following similar collapses in Asia and Europe.Economists have also warned that the tariffs could dampen growth and fuel inflation.But Trump said on his Truth Social platform that his “policies will never change.”Trump’s latest tariffs have notable exclusions, however.They do not stack on recently-imposed 25-percent tariffs hitting imports of steel, aluminum and automobiles.Also temporarily spared are copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber, alongside “certain critical minerals” and energy products, the White House said.But Trump has ordered investigations into copper and lumber, which could lead to further duties soon.He has threatened to hit other industries like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as well, meaning any reprieve might be limited.Canada and Mexico are unaffected as they face separate duties of up to 25 percent on goods entering the United States outside a North America trade agreement.- Retaliation risk -While Trump’s staggered deadlines allow space for countries to negotiate, “if they can’t get a reprieve, they are likely to retaliate, as China already has,” Oxford Economics warned this week.EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the bloc, which faces a 20-percent tariff, will act in “a calm, carefully phased, unified way” and allow time for talks.But he said it “won’t stand idly by.”France and Germany have said the EU could respond by imposing a tax on US tech companies.Japan’s prime minister called for a “calm-headed” approach after Trump unveiled 24-percent tariffs on Japanese-made goods.Meanwhile, Trump said he held a “very productive” call with Vietnam’s top leader, with imports from the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub facing extraordinary 46-percent US duties.Since returning to the presidency, Trump has hit Canada and Mexico imports with tariffs over illegal immigration and fentanyl, and imposed an additional 20-percent rate on goods from China. Come April 9, the added levy on Chinese products this year reaches 54 percent.Trump’s 25-percent auto tariffs also took effect this week, and Jeep-owner Stellantis paused production at some Canadian and Mexican assembly plants.Trump’s new global levies mark “the most sweeping tariff hike since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the 1930 law best remembered for triggering a global trade war and deepening the Great Depression,” said the Center for Strategic and International Studies.Oxford Economics estimates the action will push the average effective US tariff rate to 24 percent, “higher even than those seen in the 1930s.”