Liberation Day, Independence Day, the greatest day in American history? Or the end of the global economic order and the start of a dangerous new world?

In the end it was classic Trump, sometimes reading from an autocue as if for the first time, sometimes veering off script in erratic directions, calling out supporters in the crowd, bringing up oversized props to illustrate his thinking.

But behind the showmanship and the rhetoric, President Trump blew up a global trading system and an economic order that had been taken for granted as the best way of doing things since the end of the Second World War, in the process becoming the most protectionist US President in 100 years.

From Friday night, anything imported into the US from another country will be subject to a minimum 10 per cent tariff – a tax – with many countries facing far higher rates; EU countries will face a 20 per cent levy.

Asian countries including Vietnam – which has become a manufacturing powerhouse for clothes, toys and electronics – face truly crippling tariffs meaning that entire supply chains are being totally upended. Goods exported from Vietnam to the US will now face a tariff of 46 per cent. For Taiwan it’s 32 per cent and 25 per cent for South Korea.

© City A.M.