US President Donald Trump doubled new global tariffs, raising them from 10% to 15%, days after the Supreme Court struck down a blanket tax on imported goods.
Saturday’s move comes as businesses and governments around the world seek repayment of an estimated $133 billion that Washington has already collected.
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President Trump announced in a post on his platform Truth Social that the increases were “effective immediately,” saying the move was based on a review of Friday’s “ridiculous, ill-conceived, and deeply anti-American decision” by the Supreme Court.
By a 6-3 vote, the court ruled that it was unconstitutional for President Trump to unilaterally set and change tariffs because the power to tax resides with the U.S. Congress.
The court’s decision invalidated tariffs that President Trump had imposed on nearly every country using the emergency powers law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
At a press conference after the ruling, President Trump lambasted the majority justices as “idiots and pet dogs” and called them “a disgrace to the family.” He quickly signed an executive order imposing a flat 10% tariff starting Tuesday under another law, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.
The 15% rate hike announced Saturday is the highest rate allowed under the law.
However, these tariffs are limited to 150 days unless extended by Congress. No president has ever invoked Section 122, so its application could lead to further legal challenges.
It is unclear at this time whether the latest executive order will be issued.
According to Reuters, the White House said the Section 122 tariffs include exemptions for certain products, including critical minerals, metals and energy products.
lawsuit
President Trump wrote Saturday that his administration will continue to work on imposing other permissible tariffs.
“In the coming months, the Trump administration will decide on and issue new legally permissible tariffs, continuing our extraordinarily successful process of making America great again,” he said.
The president has already said his administration intends to rely on two other laws that authorize import taxes on certain products and countries based on national security or unfair trade practices investigations.
Tariffs have been a centerpiece of President Trump’s economic policy, using them as a tool to address a variety of goals, from reviving domestic manufacturing to pressuring other countries to crack down on drug trafficking and pushing warring countries toward peace.
He has also used tariffs, or the threat of them, as leverage to extract trade concessions from foreign governments.
As of December, the U.S. Treasury had collected more than $133 billion in import taxes imposed by the president under the Emergency Powers Act, according to federal data.
Since the Supreme Court’s decision, importers have filed more than 1,000 lawsuits seeking refunds in the U.S., and more lawsuits are underway.
John Diamond, director of Rice University’s Center on Tax and Budget Policy, said that while legally sound, the path forward for these claims is not easy, especially for small businesses.
“Obviously they will prevail in court, but it will take time,” Diamond said. “Once the court order goes into effect, I think refunds will be less of a hassle for large companies. Smaller businesses will have an even harder time getting through this process.”
But foreign governments are managing “real chaos,” Diamond said.
“What would you do if you had an existing trade agreement with Taiwan or the UK and it was overturned?”
The U.S.-Taiwan trade deal would reduce general tariffs on Taiwanese goods from 20% to 15%, the same level as Asian trading partners South Korea and Japan, in exchange for Taipei agreeing to buy about $85 billion in U.S. energy, aircraft and equipment.
The US-UK deal imposes a 10% tariff on imports of most British goods and reduces high tariffs on British car, steel and aluminum imports.
“Pickpocketing American citizens”
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, President Trump’s trade representative, Jamison Grier, told Fox News on Friday that those countries must abide by the agreement even if they demand higher tariffs than Section 122.
Guria said exports to the United States from countries such as Malaysia and Cambodia will continue to be taxed at the negotiated rate of 19%, even if the universal tax rate is lower.
Airlangga Hartarto, Indonesia’s chief negotiator on U.S. tariffs, said a trade deal between the countries signed on Friday that set U.S. tariffs at 19% remains in effect despite the court ruling.
The ruling could be good news for countries like Brazil, which has not negotiated a deal with the U.S. government to lower its 40% tariffs, but whose tariffs could drop to 15%, at least temporarily.
Governments around the world have reacted to the Supreme Court’s ruling and President Trump’s subsequent tariff announcement with a mix of cautious optimism, anxiety, and frustration.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he would coordinate Europe’s joint stance before meeting Trump in early March, and Hong Kong’s Financial Services and Treasury Secretary Christopher Heu described the situation surrounding Trump’s new tariffs as a “disastrous failure.”
As the US midterm elections in November approach, President Trump’s approval ratings regarding his handling of the economy have steadily declined over his first year in office.
In a Reuters/Ipsos poll that ended Monday, 34% of respondents said they approve of President Trump’s economic policy response, while 57% said they disapprove.
Democrats need only flip three Republican-held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in November to gain a majority, but they blame Trump’s tariffs for exacerbating the rising cost of living.
They were quick to condemn President Trump’s threat of new tariffs on Saturday.
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee accused President Trump of “pickpocketing the American people” with his newly announced tariff hikes.
“Just over 24 hours after his tariffs were ruled illegal, he is still doing everything he can to drive up costs,” they wrote on social media.
Trump’s nemesis, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, added: “He (President Trump) doesn’t care about you.”
