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Oil imports exempted from Trump’s sweeping tariffs

Imports of oil, gas and refined products were exempted from U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs, the White House said on Wednesday. The exemption will come as a relief to the U.S. oil industry, which had expressed concerns that new levies could disrupt flows and raise costs on everything from Canadian crude oil serving Midwest refineries to European cargoes of gasoline and diesel to the eastern seaboard. Trump on Wednesday announced he would impose a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the United States and higher duties on dozens of the country's biggest trading partners, deepening a trade war that he kicked off on his return to the White House.

Analysis-Trump tariffs pile stress on ailing world economy

LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) -The latest round of U.S. trade tariffs unveiled on Wednesday will sap yet more vigour from a world economy barely recovered from the post-pandemic inflation surge, weighed down by record debt and unnerved by geopolitical strife. Depending on how President Donald Trump and leaders of other nations proceed now, it may also go down as a turning point for a globalised system that until now had taken for granted the strength and reliability of America, its largest component. "Trump's tariffs carry the risk of destroying the global free trade order the United States itself has spear-headed since the Second World War," said Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute.