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LONDON: Hungary’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a warning. Both of the breakdown of respect for international law, and of the growing identification of far-right forces across Europe with the state of Israel.

The entire world is deepening into geopolitical tensions and increasing uncertainty in trade following the announcement made by the U.S. President Donald Trump the new tariff rates on April 2. The U.S. slapped 27 percent import tariff on India. President Trump exhilarated this as “discounted replication”, despite India imposing 52 percent and reckoned as worst tariff offender.

NEW YORK: Leading economists have reacted sharply to Trump's reciprocal tariffs on 180 countries allegedly feeding off America’s economy for years and weakening its GDP growth. They warned the tariffs could destabilize global markets, disrupt trade and ultimately increase costs for U.S. businesses and consumers.

The challenge for both China and India, which have the world’s largest number of mouths to feed, is to ensure that further land degradation does not happen and the barren land is progressively recovered for farming. The two countries in their own ways remain engaged in the task even while China has an edge over its neighbour in wasteland recovery. Beijing continues to invest heavily in restoring barren and degraded land for farming, primarily through programmes like the “grain for green” involving financial rewards for farmers to plant trees. Such initiatives results in significant improvements in soil health. Whatever that is, bringing new land for agricultural use is a slow process as urbanisation, infrastructure development and building of industries will continue to lay claim on land.

NEW YORK: On April 2, Donald Trump announced what amounts to a dramatic escalation of the trade war initiated during his first term. Addressing a crowd of auto union workers at a Rose Garden event at the White House, the president revealed the details of his plan to reset the United States’ relationship with its trading partners, framing his tariffs as a “declaration of economic independence.”

WASHINGTON D.C.: Just a sampling of headlines on the first day of the USA’s new “Golden Age” serves to illustrate the chaos and uncertainty – along with the ridiculousness and absurdity – of President Donald Trump’s post-globalization world.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, better known globally as Lula has launched a major initiative to meet the U.S. President Donald Trump’s unilateral tariff offensive by joining hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Russian President Vladimir Putin, apart from taking assistance from South Africa and a few other left wing governments of Latin America.

From politicians to economists to the humble stock traders, nobody could really believe it will come to pass. Worse, in fact, it should be as bad as it turned out in reality.

President Donald Trump in his pursuit of making America great again (MAGA) has launched a fusillade of indefensible tariff measures upsetting the multilateral trading system. While this Trump campaign will prove hurtful for countries across the board – allies and those perceived as not friendly – the revised tariff has enhanced further the resolve of China to achieve food security whatever the cost, progressively reduce dependence on imports of agricultural products and diversify sources of imports, meaning actually buying less and less from the US. The aggressive pursuit of these goals will perforce negatively impact the US farm sector, for China is a significant buyer of a number of agricultural products from soybean to coarse grains, excluding corn, to cotton to tree nuts. China is also a major market for the US origin beef, pork and dairy products.

LONDON: Britain’s elite stands exposed by Donald Trump’s tariffs. The Make America Great Again (MAGA) presidency is declaring economic war on its so-called allies: and none, worldwide, have staked so much for so long on “partnership” with the United States as Britain.