'America's trade policies back to 19th century': Media reacts to Trump's tariffs

U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs have dominated headlines worldwide. 

Here are some of the key headlines along with expert opinions from across the globe.

Friedman tells New York Times: 'I just Saw the Future. It Was Not in America.'

Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman outlined his concerns about U.S. tariffs on China in an article titled "I Just Saw the Future. It Was Not in America." He urged efforts toward a win-win rather than lose-lose trading relationship between the world's first and second economies.

"My problem is with Trump's magical thinking that you just put up walls of protection around an industry (or our whole economy) and – presto! – in short order, U.S. factories will blossom and make those products in America at the same cost with no burden for U.S. consumers," Friedman said.

In his opinion, every sophisticated product today – from cars to iPhones to mRNA vaccines – is manufactured by giant, complex global manufacturing ecosystems. "That is why those products get steadily better and cheaper."

Friedman wrote that, "if you are protecting the auto industry and you think just putting up a tariff wall will do it, you don't know anything about how cars are made." He added that it would take years for American car companies to replace the global supply chains they depend on and make everything in America. 

Friedman also gave his suggestions on building a win-win trade between U.S. and China, such as welcoming Chinese companies to enter the U.S. market by licensing their best manufacturing innovations to U.S. firms or by partnering with them and creating advanced manufacturing factories in 50-50 ventures. 

"This, of course, would require a huge effort to rebuild trust, which is now almost entirely missing in the relationship. It's the only way to get to reasonably win-win trade. Without it, we're heading for lose-lose."

Economist: Trump takes America's trade policies back to 19th century

"Few expected him to go quite so far. In a stunning shift in American economic strategy, Donald Trump has yanked up tariffs across the board," The Economist said at the beginning of an article titled "Trump takes America's trade policies back to the 19th century."

After a brief introduction of Trump's "reciprocal tariffs," the article noted that "coming on top of other tariffs announced since his return to the White House, the result is that, in the space of ten weeks, he has erected a wall of protection around the American economy akin to that of the late 1800s."

"For Mr Trump the measures represent an attempt to bring a long era of increasingly free global trade to a definitive end."

Noting Trump ignored the twin facts that globalization has delivered unprecedented prosperity to America and that the country has been the main architect of the rules underpinning international trade, the article said "Now, if Mr Trump gets his way, the economic order that was slowly and steadily built up in the aftermath of the World War II is dead and buried."

AP: Risking inflation and trade wars

While reporting Trump's "reciprocal tariffs," an AP report, titled "Trump announces sweeping new tariffs to promote U.S. manufacturing, risking inflation and trade wars," quoted experts' opinions to warn what the tariffs will bring.

"With today's announcement, U.S. tariffs will approach levels not seen since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which incited a global trade war and deepened the Great Depression," Scott Lincicome and Colin Grabow of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, told AP.

Representative Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the tariffs are "part of the chaos and dysfunction" being generated across the Trump administration.

Noting that Trump raised tariffs without getting lawmakers' approval, DelBene said, "The president shouldn't be able to do that. This is a massive tax increase on American families, and it's without a vote in Congress. President Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would lower costs on day one. Now he says he doesn't care if prices go up – he's broken his promise."

Reuters: Trump approval falls to 43 percent, lowest since returning to office

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Trump's approval rating has fallen to 43 percent, the lowest since his return to office.

About half of respondents – 52 percent – agreed with a statement that increasing tariffs on autos and auto parts, part of the new tariff push Trump unveiled on Wednesday, will hurt people close to them, and about the same share said that boosting tariffs would do more harm than good.

About a third of Americans – largely from Trump's Republican Party – said they disagreed with the statements that tariffs would do harm.

(With input from agencies)