Which countries impose the highest tariffs on the US?

But the White House has also flagged what it describes as other "unfair" trading practices, chiefly implemented through tariffs on U.S. goods. 

Beijing responded the next day by slapping reciprocal tariffs on 106 U.S. products worth $50 billion, mostly targeting U.S. agricultural products worth some $16.5 billion.

The tariff war would continue with repeated back-and-forth escalating tariffs before some tariff relief was agreed upon beginning in January 2020.

The Biden administration and China largely maintained the status quo established during Trump's initial trade war. 

But Trump threatened to hit Beijing with 60% tariffs on the campaign trail and, by February 2025, just weeks after his inauguration, he slapped China with a blanket 20% tariff on all Chinese imports.

China's trade deficit with the U.S. is $295.4 billion. 

The European Union, which is no stranger to Trump's tariff war, is bracing for a much bigger battle this time around after enduring metal trade spats during his first term. 

The EU said it could impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. of up to $28 billion. 

But it is not only the difference in trade agreements that has irked the president.

Last month, the White House said specific levies charged by various trading partners are making it "virtually impossible" for U.S. products to be exported, including a 50% tax on American dairy products sold by EU nations. 

But expert Andrew Hale, a senior policy analyst in trade policy with the Heritage Foundation, explained that the dairy industry in particular has massive barriers stopping Europe from being able to lower prices to match American products.

"They have a very, very protected agricultural market," Hale said, highlighting Europe's strict husbandry practices. "Europeans would not be able to compete."

Hale explained that norms like overcrowding and poor conditions frequently found in the U.S.'s poultry, dairy and pork industries in mass farming are barred in Europe. 

Animal spacing regulations and bans related to hormone injections have required a completely different type of farming that favors quality treatment of the animals versus mass production, which makes European meats and dairy products more expensive than American products and makes it unlikely that the EU drops this tax.

Hale explained that while this is technically true, it is a tariff rate-quota that was negotiated during the first Trump administration under the revised NAFTA agreement, which became the United States Mexico Canada (USMCA), and one which has never been implemented.

Canada and the U.S. in recent weeks have entered into a tariff war after Trump announced a blanket 25% tariff on 25% on Canadian goods and 10% on its energy.

Ottawa, in return, imposed 25% reciprocal tariffs on $30 billion in U.S. goods, mostly targeting the agriculture sector. 

It has threatened to hit the U.S. with tariffs on $95 billion in U.S. imports if Trump imposes more taxes on the country's northern neighbor.

"Everyone needs to do what Israel has just done, bring down zero tariffs against the U.S. And then we can have absolute free trade," Hale said. "That's fair, and we can all have market access.

"When you have stupid tariffs, like tariffing stuff you don't grow and make, that's just basically being unfair."