Trump's tariffs will hit the US's top trading partners

Trade with Mexico, China and Canada accounted for about 43% of all US goods imports in 2023 by value, according to a Statista analysis, noting that, according to UN Comtrade data, the United States imported $3.2 trillion in goods and exported $2 trillion in that year. Of these exports, goods shipped to Canada accounted for almost 18% of the value, while Mexico's share was 16%.

A closer look at the types of goods imported from Mexico shows that the top three types of goods, namely vehicles, electronic equipment and machinery, account for about $300 billion of the total import bill of $480 billion. Canada's top exports to the US by value are mineral oils and fuels, vehicles and machinery, while electronics equipment, cars and toys come from China. The main US exports to China are fuels and mineral oils, soybeans and machinery, while the North American country sends electronic equipment, machinery, fuels and mineral oils to Mexico, and vehicles, electronic equipment and machinery to Canada.

In addition to goods, the US also exports and imports services, although, unlike the goods sector, the trade balance in this area is heavily skewed towards exports, with almost a trillion dollars in exports and 700 billion dollars in imports in 2022, according to the US Commerce Department. The largest buyers of US services were Ireland, the United Kingdom and Canada, while the main suppliers were the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

Proposed tariffs on imported goods were one of the economic pillars of President Donald Trump's campaign. For example, Trump intends to implement 25% tariffs on goods shipped to the US from Canada and Mexico, and between 10% and 60% on Chinese goods, according to CNN, and some of these will come into effect as early as February 1.

• Queue on the London gold market, amid increased deliveries to the US

Players on the London gold market are flocking to borrow gold from central banks, which store their bullion in London, amid an explosive increase in gold deliveries to the US, amid speculation that Washington could introduce tariffs on imports, sources quoted by Reuters say, according to Agerpres.

One of the sources said that the minimum waiting period to remove gold from the vaults of the Bank of England, which also stores gold for other central banks, has reached four weeks. Normally, the waiting period is from several days to a week.

New US President Donald Trump has not mentioned precious metals in his plans to raise tariffs, but the risk is considered high enough to increase gold shipments to New York. One reason is the market's desire to protect its positions on the US Comex exchange and another is the desire to profit from the widening difference between Comex futures quotes and London spot prices.

London is home to the world's largest over-the-counter gold trading hub, where market players trade directly with each other rather than interacting via a trading platform.

"The crucial thing with the Bank of England is that it is not a commercial vault, so it is not prepared to handle a flood of gold loan requests from central banks," says Robert Gottlieb, an expert and former head of the precious metals division at Koch Supply & Trading.

In the past two months, about 12.2 million ounces of gold have been delivered to Comex-approved warehouses, pushing inventories in those warehouses up 70% to 29.8 million ounces, the highest level since August 2022.

The liquidity problems in other major trading hubs are less pronounced than in London, but they are being felt globally, said Alexander Zumpfe, a precious metals trader at Heraeus Metals. "The logistical complexities associated with moving large quantities of gold, especially from Europe to the US, are adding to this stress. Asia has also seen some knock-on effects, particularly in markets like Singapore and Hong Kong," Zumpfe said.