New tariffs on imported goods announced by United States President Donald Trump have come into effect.
This comes days after the country’s Supreme Court struck down most of his previous tariff regime.
According to a notice issued by US Customs and Border Protection, Washington imposed an additional tariff from today of 10 percent on all goods not covered by exemptions.
Collection of the new tariffs began at midnight today, while the collection of the tariffs annulled by the Supreme Court was halted. They had ranged from 10 percent to as much as 50 percent.
Trump has doubled down on imposing tariffs on trading partners since the top court on Friday struck down many of his sweeping and often arbitrary duties, in a rebuke of his signature economic policy.
The conservative-majority court ruled six to three that Trump had exceeded his authority in using a 1977 law to impose sudden tariffs on individual countries.
The US has already collected at least $130bn in tariffs using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), according to the most recent official data.
In the ruling, the Supreme Court said that the US President had overstepped his authority by introducing sweeping tariffs using IEEPA last year, a decision that raised the possibility that businesses could get billions of dollars in tariff refunds.
However, Trump says that the tariffs are justified as a means “to deal with the large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits,” according to a White House press release.
Reacting to the court’s ruling, the US President initially announced a new temporary global tariff of 10 percent.
An executive order signed by Trump on Friday said the temporary 10% import duty was intended to “address fundamental international payments problems and continue the Administration’s work to rebalance our trade relationships to benefit American workers, farmers, and manufacturers.”
He later said on Saturday he would increase that level to 15 percent. The move added to confusion surrounding US trade policy, with no explanation offered for why the lower rate had been used.
Trump’s tariff order argued that a serious balance of payments deficit existed in the form of a $1.2 trillion annual US goods trade deficit, a current account deficit of 4 percent of gross domestic product and a reversal of the US primary income surplus.
New Tariff To Last For 150 Days
The new duty, taking effect today, only lasts for 150 days unless extended by Congress and is widely seen as a bridge towards a more durable trade policy.
This is because the administration is applying the levy under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which allows the President to impose the charge for 150 days without congressional approval.
On Monday, Trump warned countries against backing away from recently negotiated trade deals with the US, saying that if they did, he would hit them with much higher duties under different trade laws.
Meanwhile, Beijing has urged the US to abandon its “unilateral tariffs”, indicating also that it is willing to hold another round of trade talks with the world’s largest economy, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Tuesday.
China will decide at the right time on adjusting countermeasures to the latest US tariff adjustments, the ministry added.
Japan also said it had asked Washington to ensure its treatment under a new tariff regime would be as favourable as in an existing agreement, treading carefully to avoid rocking the boat before the Japanese Prime Minister’s US visit next month.
The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said that while the latest measures could increase the tariff cost for some Japanese export items, Japan’s Trade Minister and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick affirmed on a call on Monday that the two countries would implement the trade deal struck last year “in good faith and without delay.”
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