Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the international response to U.S. reciprocal tariffs, Hungary defying the International Criminal Court, and Danish and U.S. efforts to control Greenland.
‘The Consequences Will Be Dire’
At the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump is celebrating after he announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs on virtually all U.S. trading partners on Wednesday. Rates vary per nation, and Trump said he will impose an additional baseline 10 percent tariff on all countries regardless of their status, even including some uninhabited islands.
Around the world, though, the response to Washington’s trade war remains one of concern and anger.
Trump’s universal tariffs are a “major blow to the world economy,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. “Let’s be clear-eyed about the immense consequences. The global economy will massively suffer. Uncertainty will spiral and trigger the rise of further protectionism. The consequences will be dire for millions of people around the globe.”
The European Union announced on Thursday that it plans to launch retaliatory tariffs in response. These will be in addition to another package of countermeasures, worth roughly $28.4 billion, that is close to being finalized to combat U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs imposed last month.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry vowed on Wednesday to take “resolute countermeasures” against Trump’s reciprocal duties, accusing Washington of violating international trade rules in an act of “unilateral bullying.” And Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney imposed 25 percent duties on some U.S. auto imports on Thursday, as the United States’ own auto tariffs went into effect.
Other countries have turned to legal institutions for support. On Wednesday, Brazil passed a reciprocity bill aimed at retaliating against tariffs, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva saying that he was considering appealing to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Trump’s trade actions. Japanese Trade Minister Yoji Muto also said Tokyo is questioning whether reciprocal duties are in line with the WTO.
Not all countries pledged an immediate escalatory response. Many U.S. trading partners, from India to New Zealand, said they plan to address hiked levies by strengthening bilateral relations with the United States.
Taiwan, for instance, condemned the tariffs as “highly unreasonable,” while its Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has pledged a $100 billion investment to mollify Trump. And acting South Korean President Han Duck-soo called for immediate negotiations with the United States to discuss ways to minimize the tariffs’ impact.
Despite the varied responses, however, most countries affected by the tariffs expressed a similar sentiment. “This is not the act of a friend,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday.
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What We’re Following
Hungary to exit ICC. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received the red-carpet treatment in Budapest on Thursday. As he arrived, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that Hungary would begin the process of leaving the International Criminal Court (ICC), making it the third nation to do so. According to Orban’s chief of staff, the process could take a year or more to complete.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last November for alleged crimes against humanity related to Israel’s war conduct in Gaza; then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was also issued a warrant. As a member of the Rome Statute, Hungarian authorities are required to detain the Israeli leader once he steps foot onto Hungarian soil.
However, Budapest has accused the ICC of “interfering in an ongoing conflict for political purposes” and openly defied the global institution by inviting Netanyahu anyway. “I am convinced that this otherwise important international judicial forum has been degraded into a political tool, with which we cannot and do not want to engage,” Orban said.
Hungary’s failure to arrest Netanyahu on Thursday still means that Budapest violated the Rome Statute. “Hungary’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court would demonstrate how far Orban’s government is willing to go to diminish protection of human rights globally and respect for the rule of law for people, including in Hungary,” said Liz Evenson, the international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
Sights set on Greenland. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen met with high-ranking officials in Greenland on Thursday as part of a three-day trip intended to build trust with local authorities in the face of growing U.S. desires to acquire the territory. “You cannot annex another country,” Frederiksen said during her Greenland visit, in remarks aimed at the United States.
Greenland is a semiautonomous Danish territory that Trump has expressed interest in controlling, citing its vast mineral wealth and strategic location. Last week, top U.S. officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, paid a contentious visit to the island, during which Vance accused Denmark of underinvesting in the territory.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen in Brussels on Thursday on the sidelines of a NATO summit—marking Denmark’s first in-person, high-level talks with a delegation from Washington since Trump began his campaign to acquire Greenland.
According to a U.S. State Department brief, the two officials did not discuss the territory, instead focusing on threats posed by Russia and China as well as increased defense spending and burden-sharing.
India’s controversial land laws. India’s lower house of Parliament passed a controversial bill on Thursday aimed at amending laws used to govern Muslim land endowments, or waqfs. After a 12-hour debate, 288 lawmakers voted in favor, with 232 opposed. The legislation must clear Parliament’s upper house before being approved by Indian President Droupadi Murmu.
If confirmed, the bill would add non-Muslims to the boards that manage waqfs and give Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist coalition government greater control over Muslim land. Waqfs in India control 872,000 properties—some of which date back centuries—worth around $14 billion.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party argues that these reforms are needed to curb alleged corruption. However, rights groups worry that the bill could undermine India’s sizable Muslim minority, including by enabling Modi’s government to confiscate mosques and other historic properties.
Odds and Ends
They say mimicry is the highest form of flattery. Well, the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague is capitalizing on that. After lending out Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” to a 2023 exhibition of the artist’s work in Amsterdam, museum curators urged aspiring artists to submit their own renditions of the iconic painting to fill the empty space.
More than 2,700 individuals have tried their hands at honoring the jewelry-clad girl with their own unique interpretations, from wayang puppets to orange peels and bottle caps.