Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs to take effect immediately after announcement: White House

US President Donald Trump’s raft of “Liberation Day” tariffs will take effect immediately after he unveils them on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

“My understanding is that the tariff announcement will come tomorrow; they will be effective immediately,” Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday, adding she had just spoken to Trump about the issue.

Donald Trump’s impending tariff announcement has put the world’s major economies on alert, raising fears of a global trade war.

He has kept both allies and rivals uncertain about the specifics—who will be affected and to what extent—but has assured he will be “very kind” when unveiling the measures on what he calls “Liberation Day” this Wednesday.

Concerns over a trade war have unsettled markets, with worries mounting about a potential U.S. recession. Trump remains firm on imposing reciprocal tariffs against countries that tax U.S. exports, pledging to match their duties.

However, he has offered little clarity on which nations will be targeted or the scale of the measures. Last week, he suggested a possible moderation in his approach, hinting that some tariffs may be set at lower rates than those imposed on U.S. goods by other countries.

“We are going to be very nice, relatively speaking. We are going to be very kind,” the president said, before launching into a strangely intimate digression. He spoke of someone who didn’t know him well who offered him a compliment recently. “They said — ‘You are such a kind person’ and I said, ‘Say that again.’ They said, ‘You are a kind person.’ I said, ‘I’ve never heard that before.’”

With inputs from agencies