President Trump on Monday announced that he would be imposing a 25% tariff on any country that does business with Iran, which, if enforced, could add to the economic pain among Iranians that sparked large-scale protests inside the country.
“Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The tariffs could affect China, Turkey, the UAE, Iraq, and India, all major trading partners of Iran. Trump has a history of announcing tariffs then reversing them, but he said in the post that the order for the new Iran-related tariffs is “final and conclusive.”
Trump’s announcement came as he is threatening to bomb Iran over Tehran’s response to the protests. Amid the attention on Iran, experts on a panel hosted by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft noted that the foreign response Iranians would like to see is the lifting of US sanctions, which were designed to wreck the country’s economy.
“I think that [the] vast majority of Iranians would welcome a deal that lifts the shadow of war and invites the removal of sanctions,” Mohammad Ali Shabani, editor of the Amwaj newsmagazine, said on the panel, according to Middle East Eye.
