President Donald Trump’s steeper global tariffs came into effect Thursday, leaving dozens of US partners scrambling to secure relief from soaring levies that are rewriting global trade practice.Shortly before the new rates kicked in, Washington also announced it would double India tariffs to 50 percent and hit many semiconductor imports with a 100-percent duty.Trump’s trade policy is a demonstration of economic power that he hopes will revive domestic manufacturing, but many economists fear it could fuel inflation and lower growth.In his latest move, the president raised import duties from 10 percent to levels between 15 percent and 41 percent for various trading partners.Many products from the European Union, Japan and South Korea now face a 15-percent tariff, even with deals struck with Washington to avert steeper threatened levies.But questions remain surrounding the implementation of these agreements.Others like India face a 25-percent duty — to be doubled in three weeks — while Syria, Myanmar and Laos face levels of 40 or 41 percent.Switzerland’s government, which failed to convince Trump not to impose a 39-percent tariff, said after an extraordinary meeting Thursday that it remains committed to talks aimed at lowering levies.Trump’s latest wave of “reciprocal” duties — a response to trade practices Washington deems unfair — broadens measures imposed since he returned to the presidency.Wall Street’s major indexes mostly dipped, while global markets largely shrugged off the higher tariffs Thursday.- ‘No charge’ -The steeper duties maintain exemptions on sectors that Trump separately targeted, like steel and autos.Categories that could be hit later, like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, are also spared for now.Trump said Wednesday that he plans an “approximately 100-percent tariff” on semiconductor imports, but with no charge for companies investing in his country or committed to doing so.Companies and industry groups warn Trump’s new levies will severely hurt smaller American businesses.But providing some reprieve from the “reciprocal” tariff hike is a clause saying that goods already en route to the United States before Thursday — and arriving before October 5 — will not face the new rates.With the dust settling, at least temporarily, Georgetown University professor Marc Busch expects US businesses to “pass along more of the tariff bill” to consumers.Inventories are depleting and it is unlikely firms will absorb costs indefinitely, he told AFP.Trump is using tariffs to pursue a variety of goals — such as doubling planned duties on India due to its purchase of Russian oil, a key revenue source in Moscow’s war in Ukraine.The order threatened penalties on countries that “directly or indirectly” import Russian oil too.The Federation of Indian Export Organisations called the move a “severe setback” impacting nearly 55 percent of shipments to the United States.- Discrepancies -Lingering questions remain for partners who have negotiated deals with Trump.Tokyo and Washington appear at odds over the terms of their pact, such as when levies on Japanese cars will be lowered from an existing 25 percent on US auto imports.Both countries also seem to differ on whether the new 15-percent toll on Japanese goods would be added to existing levies or — like the EU — be capped at that level for many products.Japan’s tariffs envoy Ryosei Akazawa told reporters Thursday that Washington is expected to revise its order such that the new toll does not stack uniformly on existing ones. It would also lower vehicle tariffs on Japanese autos.Washington and Beijing meanwhile have a temporary truce in their tariff standoff expiring August 12. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox Business it is likely this will be extended another 90 days.Trump has separately targeted Brazil over the trial of his right-wing ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of planning a coup.US tariffs on various Brazilian goods surged to 50 percent Wednesday with broad exemptions.Lutnick expects Trump’s duties could bring in $50 billion in monthly revenue.burs-bys/mlm

From Uncle Sam to Superman, the US government is deploying patriotic icons and increasingly warlike rhetoric to recruit Americans into enforcing Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.Job ads promising $50,000 signing bonuses to new “Deportation Officers” have flooded social media over the past week, accompanied by jingoistic rallying slogans that declare “America Needs You.”White House officials have shared World War I-style posters, including one with Uncle Sam donning an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) baseball cap, while a former Superman actor has pledged he will “be sworn in as an ICE agent ASAP.””So many patriots have stepped up, and I’m proud to be among them,” Dean Cain, who starred as the Man of Steel in 1990s TV series “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” told FOX News.ICE, the agency chiefly responsible for the recent, divisive masked raids on farms, factories and Home Depot parking lots across the nation, is pulling out all the stops to hire new officers at a staggering rate. Flush with $75 billion in extra funding — making it the highest-funded US law enforcement agency, ahead of even the FBI — ICE has been tasked by Trump with deporting one million undocumented immigrants per year.To do so, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has pledged to hire 10,000 new officers, in a process that would swell ICE’s ranks by a whopping 50 percent.On Wednesday, Noem scrapped pre-existing age caps that prevented over-40s from becoming deportation officers.Student debt forgiveness, generous overtime pay and enhanced retirement benefits are all being flouted — alongside language about the opportunity to “Fulfill your destiny” and “Defend the Homeland.””Your nation needs you to step into the breach. For our country, for our culture, for our way of life. Will you answer the call?” read one post on Department of Homeland Security social media accounts.- ‘All-hands-on-deck’ -DHS officials say they have received 80,000 applications since the recruitment campaign began less than a week ago.But critics have quickly highlighted evidence that the aggressive drive may not be working as effectively as officials claim.Dozens of officials at FEMA — a separate agency that deals with emergency disaster response — have been reassigned to ICE and threatened with losing their jobs if they do not move, the Washington Post reported.DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Post the move was part of “an all-hands-on-deck strategy to recruit 10,000 new ICE agents.”An ICE pilot program offering agents additional cash bonuses for deporting people quickly was scrapped less than four hours after it was announced, when its existence was leaked to the New York Times.And some local law enforcement agencies that have cooperated with the federal immigration crackdown have complained that they are now seeing their own officers poached.”ICE actively trying to use our partnership to recruit our personnel is wrong,” a Florida sheriff’s office spokesperson told CNN.-‘Kryptonite’ -Perhaps the highest profile and most scathing response has come from “South Park,” the popular animated TV satire that is becoming a thorn in the Trump administration’s side.In a recent episode, hapless school counselor Mr Mackey is offered an ICE job after a seven-second-long interview, immediately handed a gun and sent on a raid of a children’s concert.”If you’re crazy, or fat and lazy, we don’t care at all,” says a fictional ICE job advert.”Remember, only detain the brown ones. If it’s brown, it goes down,” orders Noem’s character during a satirical sequence set during an immigration raid in heaven.ICE raids have been accused using racial profiling by rights groups.Meanwhile, the recruitment drive has been hailed by conservative outlets.Fox News celebrated the news that Superman actor Cain had enlisted with the headline banner “Illegals, meet your Kryptonite.”Supportive comments on the channel’s Facebook page included “Now that’s a REAL Superman.” Several others pointed out that Superman, a beloved comic book hero who is closely associated with American patriotism, is “quite literally an alien immigrant.”