Tariffs, inside and out

Since US President Donald Trump came to office in January 2025, not a day goes by without some mention of ‘tariffs’ in the news. International markets have reacted to landmark shifts initiated by US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policies. Tariffs have evolved from a more specialised economic tool to one gaining political and ideological ramifications, generating renewed and expanded interest in them. At the 51st Annual International Trade and Forfaiting Association’s (ITFA) Conference in Singapore, Mahika Ravi Shankar, Deputy Editor at Trade Finance Global (TFG), sat down with Craig Weeks, Senior Vice President for Trade at BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade), to discuss the impact of tariffs from a banking and trade finance perspective.