Trump is raising the tariff he just announced yesterday from 10% to 15%.
He announced on Truth Social:
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 – GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!!! Thank you for your attention
to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
Now this really looks like amateur hour as they had many months to study the possibility that tariffs would be blocked. This isn’t exactly 4D chess and makes a mockery of anyone trying to plan and do business.
All that said, this basically takes the power of tariffs away from Trump, or at least the short-term whims that he likes to negotiate with. Now that it’s at 15%, he can’t get angry about a TV add or something a foreign politician says and hit them with tariffs.
The Section 122 tariffs he’s using here also expire in 150 days.
Also, in contrast to what he said, the executive order from yesterday said the tariffs weren’t in effect until Feb 24 so there is a short window here for importers. I think that’s going to somewhat skew imports for a few things, though it might not leave too big of a ripple in the aggregate data for February.
That executive order also exempts USMCA (which was already largely, though not completely) tariff free. Here is the full text of the exemptions:
(a) certain critical minerals;
(b) metals used in currency and bullion;
(c) energy and energy products;
(d)
natural resources and fertilizers that cannot be grown, mined, or
otherwise produced in the United States or grown, mined, or otherwise
produced in sufficient quantities to meet domestic demand;
(e) certain agricultural products, including beef, tomatoes, and oranges;
(f) pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients;
(g) certain electronics;
(h)
passenger vehicles, certain light trucks, certain medium- and
heavy-duty vehicles, buses, and certain parts of passenger vehicles,
light trucks, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, and buses;
(i) certain aerospace products;
(j) information materials, donations, and accompanied baggage;
(k)
all articles and parts of articles currently or that later become
subject to additional import restrictions imposed pursuant to section
232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1862)
(section 232);
(l) articles that are entered free of duty as a good
of Canada or Mexico under the terms of general note 11 to the Harmonized
Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), including any treatment
set forth in subchapter XXIII of chapter 98 and subchapter XXII of
chapter 99 of the HTSUS, as related to the Agreement between the United
States of America, United Mexican States, and Canada; and
(m) textile
and apparel articles that are entered free of duty as a good of Costa
Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, or
Nicaragua under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade
Agreement.
