Confederation says tariffs will drive up inflation, “drive people away”
With Portuguese businesses still quantifying the effect of 20% tariffs on exports to the United States, the country’s tourism confederation says their impacts will drive people away.
“We have no doubt that this issue of tariffs will have a major impact on inflation and the consequent rise in prices,” Francisco Calheiros told journalists yesterday evening at the end of a meeting in Lisbon. “This is clearly an anti-globalisation policy that drives people away.”
Although Calheiros is confident that no impact will be felt in the short term, he expressed the fear it will become all too clear in the medium term, pointing out that the US market, along with that of Canada, are ones that have been “growing the most” recently.
What is happening, in other words, “is not good” .
Calheiros is thus another voice calling for “common sense” from policymakers – not retaliation that escalates into a damaging trade war.
Meantime, the immediate effects of Donald Trump’s imposition of a global base tariff of 10% on all countries and territories he considers to be creating trade barriers to US products – adding additional tariffs for those he considers to be the “worst offenders” – have sent financial markets plunging. Economists warn of a worldwide downturn as ‘overnight’ from Wednesday to Thursday around 2.5 trillion dollars (€2.3 trillion) were wiped off Wall Street, and share prices in other financial centres across the globe.
As of yesterday, the US dollar hit a six-month low, falling 2.2%, amid a growing loss of confidence in a currency considered the safest in the world for most of the past century.
Source material: LUSA/ Guardian
