Will Trump's tariffs damage the Western alliance?

Bitter US-China trade war?

His announcement, meanwhile, that Washington was imposing an additional 10% tariff on all Chinese imports into the US is set to reignite a bitter trade war between Washington and Beijing that dates back to his first term in office.

In 2018, he launched a two-year trade war with China over claims it was responsible for building a massive trade surplus with the US. Tariffs were imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods, causing significant disruption to global supply chains and damaging the world economy.

On this occasion, Trump says his decision to impose fresh sanctions is aimed at persuading Beijing to limit the supply of fentanyl, a deadly opioid, into the US United States.

"China hopefully is going to stop sending us fentanyl, and if they're not, the tariffs are going to go substantially higher," he said at a press conference.

China responded immediately to Trump's threat, imposing its own tariffs on a variety of US goods as well as US oil and gas imports.

China insists the fentanyl problem sweeping the US is an American issue and says it intends to challenge the tariffs at the World Trade Organisation.

With Trump expected to have talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming days, Beijing has set a deadline of 10 February for the imposition of its new tariffs, allowing both sides time to try and reach a deal that avoids a new trade war.

Trump has already suspended his threat to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada after the two countries agreed to improve their border security with the US, suggesting that Trump is using the threat of tariffs to achieve other policy goals.

Risk of rift with the West

Even so, his forceful rhetoric risks causing a damaging rift within the Western alliance, especially after he added to his recent trade announcements by threatening to impose tariffs against the EU, whose members are also members of the Nato alliance.

Arriving in Florida this week, Trump indicated that the imposition of goods coming from EU member states could happen "pretty soon".

"They don't take our cars, they don't take our farm products, they take almost nothing, and we take everything from them. Millions of cars, tremendous amounts of food and farm products," he told reporters.

He also suggested the UK, which is no longer a member of the EU, could also be hit with tariffs, although he stressed that he enjoyed good relations with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and hoped that any outstanding trade issues with the UK could be worked out.

Trump's trade wars could certainly prove problematic for Starmer, who, despite working hard to establish cordial ties between his Leftist Labour government and the Trump administration, is attempting to improve the UK's post-Brexit trading ties with the EU—a move that could complicate relations with Washington.

Speaking during a visit to Brussels to attend a meeting of EU leaders—the first British premier to do so since Brexit—Starmer said he believed that the UK's relationship with the US and the EU was of equal importance.

"I think that's always been the case and will be the case for many, many years to come," he said.

Cause for concern

The risk of Trump's combative tariff policy causing strains within the Western alliance is clearly a cause for concern for NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who said he hoped the prospect of a trade war between Europe and the US did not have a negative impact on the alliance.

Asked about tensions between the US and the EU, Rutte said there were "always issues between allies" but that they should "not get in the way of our collective determination to keep our deterrent strong".

Rutte said it was especially important that NATO maintained its support for Ukraine at a time when the Trump administration was said to be giving serious consideration to scaling down its support for Kyiv as part of its efforts to end the conflict.

Rutte said it was crucial that the Western alliance "not only sustain but continue to step up our support" to Ukraine to ensure it could negotiate with Russia from "a position of strength" in any future peace talks.

With Trump's return to the White House threatening to disrupt the Western alliance on a number of levels, from initiating trade wars to ending Washington's support for Ukraine, the need for European leaders to demonstrate unity and resolve has certainly never been greater.