'The Economist' editor unpacks the 'biggest trade policy shock' of Trump's tariffs

President Trump's sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs have upended the global economy, sending stock markets into turmoil.

"This is, without a doubt, the biggest trade policy shock, I think, in history," Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor-in-chief of The Economist, says.

Trump last week ordered a minimum 10% tax on nearly everything the U.S. buys from other countries. He's also ordered much higher levies on things the country buys from China, Japan and the European Union. However, a lot of those tariffs are in flux, because almost each day the president has either increased some tariffs or paused others.

"Presidents from Reagan to President Biden have increased tariffs on individual goods or individual sectors, but nothing like this. So this is off the charts in terms of scale, ... speed and uncertainty," says Minton Beddoes, who is a former economist for the International Monetary Fund.

While the motivation behind the tariffs remains unclear, she says that the Trump administration could be seeking to "radically remake the rules of global security, geopolitics, economics."

Minton Beddoes says the president seems to believe that the U.S. is getting a bad deal in the global economy, and that the tariffs will be used as a tool to renegotiate trade agreements: "It might be exactly what President Trump loves. Lots of people coming, knocking on his door, fawning, hoping for a good deal. This is The Art of the Deal on steroids," she says.

But, Minton Beddoes adds, the economic turmoil caused by the tariffs creates "a lot uncertainty, and a lot pain for consumers because tariffs are taxes on consumers. The people who pay this in the end, the cost of the tariffs, are people who pay more for the things that they buy."