Day after setback, Trump raises global tariff to 15%

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he was raising the global tariff he wants to impose to 15 per cent, up from 10 per cent he had announced a day earlier.

Trump said in a social media post on that he was making the decision “Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued Friday,” by the US Supreme Court.

After the court ruled he didn't have the emergency power to impose many sweeping tariffs, Trump signed an executive order on Friday night that enabled him to bypass Congress and impose a 10 per cent tax on imports from around the world. The catch is that those tariffs would be limited to just 150 days, unless they are extended legislatively. Under the order Trump signed Friday night, the 10 per cent tariff was scheduled to take effect starting February 24.

In a proclamation titled ‘Imposing a Temporary Import Surcharge to Address Fundamental International Payments Problems’ on Friday, Trump said he is imposing, for a period of 150 days, a “temporary import surcharge of 10 per cent ad valorem” on articles imported into the United States, effective February 24. The Indian Government said they are studying the developments on the US tariff and its implications. “We have noted the US Supreme Court judgement on tariffs on Friday. US President Donald Trump has also addressed a press conference in this regard. Some steps have been announced by the US administration. We are studying all these developments for their implications,” the Union Commerce Ministry stated.

Earlier this month, as the US and India announced they reached a framework for an Interim Agreement on trade, Trump issued an Executive Order removing the 25 per cent punitive tariffs imposed on India for its purchases of Russian oil, with the US president noting the commitment by New Delhi to stop directly or indirectly importing energy from Moscow and purchasing American energy products.

Under the trade deal, Washington would charge a reduced reciprocal tariff on New Delhi, lowering it from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.

Trump signed the proclamation “imposing a temporary import duty to address fundamental international payments problems and continue the Administration’s work to rebalance our trade relationships to benefit American workers, farmers, and manufacturers”.

A fact sheet issued by the White House said Trump is 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 proclamation imposes, for a period of 150 days, a 10 per cent ad valorem import duty on articles imported into the United States. The temporary import will take effect on February 24 at 12:01 am Eastern Standard Time.

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 United States.

The goods include certain critical minerals, metals used in currency and bullion, energy, and energy products; natural resources and fertilisers 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; 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.

When asked whether the framework for an interim agreement on trade with India, expected to be signed soon, stands in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, Trump said “nothing changes”. “Nothing changes. They’ll be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs. So deal with India is that they pay tariffs. This is a reversal for what it used to be, as you know, India, and 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,” Trump said. “The India deal is on…all the deals are on, we’re just going to do it in a different way,” Trump said.