While Countries Weigh Escalating Tariff War, Argentina and Israel Move To Address Trump’s Points, and Vietnam Aims for a Deal

While Communist China retaliates against America’s new tariffs and Europe and other allies calculate their next moves, a small number of President Trump’s friends around the globe — Argentina, Israel, and perhaps Hungary and others — are aiming to escape Washington’s wrath by removing barriers on imports from America.One of the countries that was hardest hit by Mr. Trump’s tariffs, Vietnam, is also negotiating its way out. After a Friday call, the president wrote on Truth Social that his Vietnamese counterpart, To Lam, wants to cut Vietnam’s tariffs down “to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S.” Vietnam, a major garment industry hub, had been slapped with a 46 percent tariff on Wednesday. After the president’s posting, Nike’s stock jumped by 4 percent.A close Trump ally, President Milei, said while visiting Mar a-Lago Thursday night that he will negotiate with Washington a deal for “zero tariff” on a number of products. Unlike Mr. Trump, whose belief in tariffs underlines his trade policies, Mr. Milei is already opening Argentinian markets to imports in an attempt to lower sky-high inflation rates.An opening of Argentina’s markets to American products might also tighten his relations with the American president. Mr. Trump’s tariff policy is to “strike first and see who comes in line to negotiate,” a Buenos Aires economist, Damian Falcone, tells the Sun. “Milei has long established a good relation with the Trump administration, and he wanted to negotiate quickly.” America is the third-largest destination for Argentinian exports, after Brazil and the European Union, and the local economy is “a patient with a cold,” Mr. Falcone says. “In a cold snap, everyone gets sick, but if you have a cold, it hits you worse.”When Mr. Trump announced his “reciprocal” tariffs on Wednesday, Argentina was slapped with the minimum tariff of 10 percent. Israel, despite announcing a day earlier that it would end all tariffs on American products, was less lucky. Mr. Trump imposed 17 percent tariffs on America’s closest Mideast ally. While visiting Hungary, Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as his host, Prime Minister Orban, spoke on the phone with Mr. Trump. Following the Thursday night call, the president said he invited the Israeli premier to Washington, where perhaps the tariff rate on Israel could be renegotiated. “We’ll speak about Israel, and we’ll speak about what’s going on,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after the phone call with Mr. Netanyahu. “I spoke to him today and I think he’s going to be coming to our country sometime in the not too distant future, maybe next week.”Israel will have no problem striking a unilateral deal with America. While Hungary is a member of the European Union, Mr. Orban is showing he is willing to defy the bloc if he believes it would advance his interests. This week he angered EU officials by announcing Hungary would drop from the International Criminal Court. Mr. Milei might similarly blow up a South America pact in order to maintain his close alliance with Mr. Trump. Argentina is a member of a regional trade bloc known as Mercosur, which frowns on unilateral free trade agreements. The Buenos Aires equivalent of the White House, Casa Rosada, says the proposed deal with Washington “isn’t a free trade agreement, but rather a bilateral tariff reduction agreement,” according to Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper.Mr. Milei, though, might have already eyed a confrontation with the trade bloc. He “would either figure out how to get Mercosur to agree” to a Washington deal, “or he would blow it up, which wouldn’t be convenient because we have a lot of trade with Brazil,” Mr. Falcone says. “In Milei’s eyes, Mercosur limits him, and I think he’s partly right.” While Argentina, Israel, and others take measures to appease Mr. Trump’s tariff campaign, much larger economies are yet to decide whether to go tit for tat, or try to soften the blow. The European Union announced it could retaliate in kind to Mr. Trump’s blanket 20 percent tariffs on its members. Japan and South Korea, hit with 24 percent and 25 percent tariffs, respectively, seem to prefer negotiations and are unlikely to retaliate. The largest retaliatory move, Beijing announcing it would impose a 34 percent tariff on American goods, rankled world stock markets Friday. Administration officials were undeterred, saying that the markets will adjust to the new rules.“China is an example,” Secretary Rubio told reporters at Brussels Friday. “They don’t consume anything. All they do is export and flood and distort markets, in addition to all the tariffs and barriers they put in place.” Mr. Trump, he said, “has concluded that the current status of global trade is bad for America and good for a bunch of other people, and he’s going to reset it.” Stock markets, Mr. Rubio added, are “crashing because markets are based on the stock value of companies who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the United States.” Companies “just need to know what the rules are. Once they know what the rules are, they will adjust to those rules.”

While Countries Weigh Escalating Tariff War, Argentina and Israel Move To Address Trump’s Points, and Vietnam Aims for a Deal

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