Australia stock market today: ASX 200 closes higher as tech rebounds; BlueScope pushes back on $13.2b bid

A Tariff Revival: Upon returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump wasted no time reasserting his “Tariff Man” persona. By early April he declared April 2, 2025 as “Liberation Day” – unveiling the most sweeping U.S. tariff hikes in decadescsis.org. This included a blanket 10% tariff on all imports effective April 5, on national security grounds, aiming to shock trading partners into concessions and kick-start domestic industrycsis.org. At the same time, the administration rolled out sector-specific duties: a 25% tariff on all imported cars and trucksreuters.com, as well as 25% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum starting March 12reuters.com. These steel/aluminum duties were later doubled to 50% in June after Trump accused China of reneging on a metals dealreuters.com.