New Delhi, March 17 -- US President Donald Trump's return to the White House has been accompanied by dramatic economic-policy shifts, setting countries around the world on edge. The US has imposed sweeping tariffs on Chinese, Mexican and Canadian imports- pausing, reinstating and later granting temporary exemptions for goods compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

In response, both Canada and Mexico have announced retaliatory tariffs on key US industries, while Trump has vowed to impose "reciprocal" tariffs on "everybody across the board."

Since no other country wields as much influence over the world economy as the US, these abrupt and unpredictable policy shifts have fuelled fears of a global slowdown, triggering a stoc...