World agriculture is bracing for tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump will announce later on April 2, 2025 or “Liberation day.”

On March 3, Trump postponed tariffs on “external agriculture product” apart from those from China, to April 2. 

As the day itself arrives, some countries such as Canada and India have already begun analyzing tariff effect.

Canada

Canada is expectant after escaping 25% tariffs that could have been effective on March 4 before their postponement for a month. Interestingly, some quarters in the country are already playing down the effect of any tariff announcement later today.

One such is Alberta Province’s premier Danielle Smith, who expects Trump to spare most agri-food goods, according to the Canadian Press.

Smith thinks that oil and agriculture could remain unscathed because Canada does not heavily tax similar cross-border imports.  

What the premier eschewed is discussing the liquor surtax, which is currently at the heart of the new bilateral trade war. The sector is contemplating reducing wine exports as retaliation against any surtax after decades of enjoying free shipments. 

India’s Agriculture

Another nation at the crossroads is India, which in 2023 slashed duty to 5% on duck and turkey imports from the U.S.  

But according to the White House on April 1, 2025, India continues to charge 100% duty on most American agricultural imports.

To stop this “ripping off,” India, Japan and the European Union could expect reciprocal action on “Liberation Day.”

Which products will attract duty are yet unknown but India can expect a slap on many agri-food exports.

World At Large

Meanwhile, the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt briefed the media on the eve of the tariff deadline about global implications.

In the briefing, she promised 20% flat duty on virtually all countries but priority would be immediate action on tariff-heavy origins.

In other words, instead of targeting certain nations, the flat worldwide duty could come in one fell swoop. This way it would apparently help generate $6 trillion in import surcharges’ returns for the U.S.’ economy.

While most of the above tariff promises are on non-agricultural goods such as autos, oil and steel, agri-food remains vulnerable. As the following statistics show, tariffs are universally applicable across majority industries.

Statistics on Past U.S. Tariffs on All Sectors Including Agriculture 

The United States went down in history from being a heavy tariff imposer to a low duty market. Between 1798 and 1913, American trade tariffs on incoming goods were extremely heavy. They provided at least 50% and sometimes as high as 90% of the annual federal revenue.  After the Depression years in the 1930s, the United States aligned with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and cut tariffs drastically. Although in 2019 protectionism returned temporarily, 70% of all goods currently enter the U.S. at zero duty.

Which countries are highly sensitive to U.S. tariffs? 

The U.S. faces dilemmas when it either taxes or leaves goods from Canada, Mexico and China untaxed. The three make up almost 50% of all American imports. If the U.S. applies duty on any of these countries, retaliation costs billions to local importers. For instance in 2020, trade war surtaxes cost U.S.’ importers some $260 billion, mostly from just China. Imposing 25% duty on goods from the three countries and worldwide, however, could bring between $2.95 and 6 trillion in federal revenue. This at the risk of slowing down the American economy by 0.4% due to trade redundancy with China, Canada and Mexico.

How have U.S. tariffs averaged per year between 2017 and 2021?

According to Macrotrends, 2019 had the highest annual duty average since 1989 for the United States because of trade war. In a normal year, however, the U.S. has generally some of the lowest tariffs in the world. The table below explores this data on a comparative basis:

Year	United States [mean duty for all products]	Top Countries [mean duty for all products]
2021	1.4%	Bermuda @ 23.84% [2021]
2020	1.52%	Cayman Islands @ 20.39% [2021]
2019	13.78%	Antigua & Barbuda @ 13.07% [2021]
2018	1.59%	Aruba @ 9.66% [2021]
2017	1.66%	Palau @ 9.49% [2021]