ieExplains: How Trump’s tariffs put Ireland in the firing line

Trump's tariffs will disrupt world markets and, specifically, Irish business, including food and drinks firms marketing dairy and Irish whiskey, will be hit with a 20% tariff. Stock picture: iStock

Donald Trump's announcement of broad tariffs will have been watched the world over. In capitals across the globe, world leaders will have anxiously watched as the US president upended decades of global free trade in a bid to, in his own vision, make America a manufacturing powerhouse and bring wealth created by American companies back to the US.

With that money, he says, he will cut taxes and protect social protection. But what's actually going on?