The Commercial Real Estate Alpha Site

Tariff Tremors via Titan News

The U.S. formally announced new tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada, reigniting global trade tensions just as markets were hoping for a calmer 2025. The move imposes a 25% tariff on key goods from Canada and Mexico, while an additional 10% tariff hits a wide range of Chinese products starting this week. Markets reacted swiftly, with the Dow sliding more than 500 points, and companies with complex international supply chains bracing for higher costs and disrupted sourcing.

The current escalation looks less like fleeting brinkmanship and more like a structural shift in trade policy. The scale of these tariffs and breadth of retaliation – hitting all top U.S. trading partners at once – suggest a decisive break from the old free-trade consensus. While President Trump may use hardball tactics as a negotiating ploy, the fallout is feeding a new normal of protectionism that could persist. Investors and firms should treat this not as just another bluff, but as a potential inflection point toward a more divided global trade regime. In other words, this may mark the start of a long trade war era rather than a short-lived spat – a paradigm shift that recalibrates growth, prices, and investment for years to come.