Trashing top court, Trump raises his new tariff to 15% from 10%

In a proclamation titled ‘Imposing a Temporary Import Surcharge to Address Fundamental International Payments Problems’, Trump said he was imposing, for a period of 150 days, a “temporary import surcharge of 10 per cent ad valorem” on articles imported into the US, effective February 24. He later increased the tariff to 15%.

In a post on TruthSocial, he said, “Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday, after MANY months of contemplation, by the United States Supreme Court, please let this statement serve to represent that I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been “ripping” the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level. During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again.”

The 15 per cent rate will be applicable to goods from across the world, including India.

The White House said Trump was invoking his authority under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which “empowers the President to address certain fundamental international payment problems through surcharges and other special import restrictions”.

The fact sheet noted that some goods will not be subject to the temporary import duty because of the needs of the US economy or in order to ensure the duty more effectively addresses the fundamental international payments problems facing the US.

The goods include certain critical minerals, metals used in currency and bullion, energy, and energy products; natural resources and fertilizers that cannot be grown, mined, or otherwise produced in the US or grown, mined, or otherwise produced in sufficient quantities to meet domestic demand; certain agricultural products, including beef, tomatoes, and oranges; pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients; certain electronics; passenger vehicles, certain light trucks, certain medium and heavy-duty vehicles, buses, and certain parts of passenger vehicles, light trucks, heavy-duty vehicles, and buses and certain aerospace products.

With the US Supreme Court invalidating Trump’s imposition of reciprocal tariffs, the dynamics of the India-US trade deal are set to change. Both countries are yet to legally sign the agreement, which has been nearly a year in the making. While Washington had already decided to lower the tariffs on India to 18%, US Customs was yet to lower the tariffs on Indian goods – it will now come down to 15%.

Switzerland-based think tank Global Trade Alert (GTA) said the removal of IEEPA  (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) tariffs would have reduced the trade-weighted average US tariff rate from 15.3% to 8.3%.

Since IEEPA tariffs varied considerably across trading partners, their removal had the potential to significantly reshape competitive conditions facing exporters to the US, the GTA said.

The removal of IEEPA-imposed tariffs, it said, would have caused the effective tariff

rate faced by Chinese exporters to the US to fall from 36.8% to 21.2%; Brazilian exporters from 26.3% to 6.8%; and Indian exporters from 22.3% to 8.2%. Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam would all see their effective tariff rates fall by more than ten percentage points.

“Certain smaller economies that had been singled out for especially high IEEPA tariffs – including Myanmar, Laos, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Moldova, Tunisia, and Serbia – would see reductions of twenty percentage points or more,” the GTA said.

Shortly after the 6-3 verdict against him, Trump used words like “fools” and “lapdogs” for judges who ruled against him.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the Court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” he said in a news conference at the White House.

Asked whether the framework for an interim agreement on trade with India, expected to be signed soon, still stands in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, Trump said, “Nothing changes. They’ll be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs. So deal with India is they pay tariffs. This is a reversal of what it used to be.”

“I think Prime Minister Modi is a great gentleman, a great man, actually, but he was much smarter than the people that he was against in terms of the United States, he was ripping us off. So we made a deal with India. It’s a fair deal now, and we are not paying tariffs to them, and they are paying tariffs. We did a little flip,” he said.

To another question on his relationship with India, he said, “I think my relationship with India is fantastic and we’re doing trade with India. India pulled out of Russia. India was getting its oil from Russia. And they pulled way back, at my request, because we want to settle that horrible war where 25,000 people are dying every month.”