President Trump has detonated the foundation of modern global commerce by announcing sweeping tariffs on nearly all imports — a move Nigel Green, CEO of global financial advisory giant deVere Group, said “peddles in economic delusion” and risks triggering a dangerous global slowdown.
“This is how you sabotage the world’s economic engine while claiming to supercharge it,” he said.
“It’s a seismic day for global trade. Trump is blowing up the post-war system that made the US and the world more prosperous, and he’s doing it with reckless confidence.”
At a blustery Rose Garden event, the US president unveiled a 10% across-the-board tariff on all imports, alongside targeted tariffs of 34% on Chinese goods, 20% on European products, and 24% on Japan.
Declaring April 2 as “Liberation Day” for American trade, Trump said the new policy would “make America wealthy again.”
But economists and markets are sounding the alarm.
“Tariffs are taxes — plain and simple — and American consumers will bear the brunt,” noted the deVere chief executive.
The reality is stark: these tariffs will push prices higher on thousands of everyday goods — from phones to food — and that will fuel inflation at a time when it is already uncomfortably persistent.
The OECD recently warned that if the US and its trading partners raise tariffs by 10 percentage points, global GDP could fall by 0.3% within three years, while inflation could rise by an average of 0.4 percentage points each year over the same period.
“This plan can be expected to directly increase the cost of living in the US,” explained Green. “Wages won’t keep up with price hikes, and the squeeze on households will likely be intense.”
Confidence, investment and growth are already under threat. Even before Wednesday’s shock announcement, the threat of protectionism had begun to drag down global sentiment. Now, that uncertainty is hardening into reality.
“When businesses don’t know what trade will look like next quarter, they stop hiring, stop investing, and freeze plans. That ripples through to consumers. This chilling effect is how recessions begin,” Green warned.
Borrowing costs climbing
The announcement is also stoking fears in bond markets. Governments already struggling under pandemic-era debt are facing higher borrowing costs as yields rise in response to the uncertainty and inflation threat.
“This is a body blow to fragile fiscal frameworks,” the deVere CEO affirmed. “For nations still recovering from years of shocks — financial, pandemic, geopolitical — Trump’s trade war is a major setback.”
“The dollar’s dominance is also no longer a sure thing. America’s credibility is on the line. With the dollar as the global reserve currency, any whiff of unpredictability or politicized policy makes global investors nervous. That trust is hard-earned and easily lost.”
Nigel Green noted that while Trump is presenting his move as a patriotic correction to trade imbalances, the actual result could be long-lasting damage to America’s economic leadership.
Back peddling is “inevitable”, he warned.
“Economic gravity will kick in. As the costs become clear and the political pain sets in, we expect a backpedal or reversal of many tariffs within 12 months. The markets, the public, and eventually even the policymakers won’t accept these self-inflicted wounds.”
For now, the world must reckon with the fallout from what “may become one of the most disruptive moments in trade history.”
Green concluded: “It would appear that Trump is peddling in economic delusion. But the world economy runs on reality — and the reality is that this will likely cause harm on a scale that can’t be spun away.”
