US President-Elect Donald Trump has appeared to fire the first shots in a trade war, announcing he intends to impose heavy tariffs on imports into the US.

To date he has confirmed a 25% tariff will be imposed on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada, with an additional 10% tariff on top of those which already exist for imports from China. Trump has indicated he is in favour of tariffs of 60% on Chinese imports.

The US has consistently been in the top three forklift importers globally for a number of years now, with some estimates it was the world’s largest in 2023. 

China, along with Japan and South Korea, ranks in the world’s top three exporters of forklifts and material handling equipment.

It will be interesting to see how this affects the next US Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry, which this month was at a three-year high (see story).