U.S. President Donald Trump announced that countries doing business with Iran will face a new 25% tariff.
He did not specify what qualifies as “doing business” with Iran, raising several questions: how these additional tariffs would work, which countries would be targeted, and whether services as well as goods would face higher duties.
China is Iran’s largest trading partner, purchasing more than $4 billion worth of products in 2023, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (CNN).
The U.S. currently imposes a minimum 20% tariff on Chinese goods, following last year’s trade war, during which Chinese imports were subjected to tariffs as high as 145% at the peak. With the new Iran-related measures, the U.S. could impose tariffs starting at 45%.
Iran exports goods to over 120 countries, with 91% going to Asia. European countries account for 8% of exports, while the rest of the world makes up the remaining 1%.
