A disaster at home and abroad

It is no surprise that US tariffs will join Gaza and the fate of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas on the agenda for a suddenly scheduled meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump at the White House on Monday. Like other close US allies targeted in Mr Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement, Israel, as it fights a war against terrorism that threatens its existence, has been alarmed to find itself saddled with 17 per cent tariffs on the 27 per cent of its exports, worth $US17.3bn ($28.3bn), that go to the US. That contrasts, inexplicably, with the relatively mild treatment of Iran’s ayatollahs’ regime. Like Australia, it was hit only with the US President’s baseline of 10 per cent.

Nothing better amplifies the incoherence of Mr Trump’s capricious approach, which he claims will “make America wealthy again’’. While Israel and other allies have been hammered, Russia and other countries in its malign orbit – Belarus, Cuba and North Korea – have been let off scot-free. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that is because sanctions imposed over Ukraine mean the US does little trade with them. Yet official US statistics show that while trade with Russia has fallen to its lowest level in decades, Moscow exported $US3bn worth of goods to the US last year – significantly more than Fiji, in our region, which has been targeted with a devastating 32 per cent tariff, Nauru with 30 per cent and Vanuatu, recovering from an earthquake, 22 per cent.

The new impost on Israeli goods entering the US was announced just a day after the Jewish state unilaterally removed all tariffs on US imports. That didn’t save it from what Jewish commentators described as “an affront to the many Jews who voted for Trump based largely on his stance towards Israel”. A writer in US Jewish magazine Forward described it as “the ultimate irony: this is the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) dream come true’’.

Israel is not alone in its dismay. After putting up a wall between the US economy and the world, Wall Street’s two-day rout destroyed $US6.6 trillion in market value. There is at least one winner amid the chaos – Xi Jinping, who has announced retaliatory tariffs of 34 per cent. “US Tariffs Make Xi Jinping’s Day,” The Wall Street Journal noted, reporting that they provide Mr Xi with a “strategic gift … that will change the world order in many ways”. Countries such as Vietnam hoped expanding trade with the US would allow them to move away from the Chinese thumb. Mr Trump has imposed a 46 per cent tariff on Vietnamese imports. Ditto other countries eager for a closer trade and strategic relationship with the US to counterbalance Beijing’s influence. Anti-American sentiment seems likely to be rekindled with profound consequences.