United States President Donald Trump has reinforced his new global tariffs, raising them from 10 percent to 15 percent, just days after the Supreme Court invalidated his sweeping import levies.
The move on Saturday occurred as businesses and governments worldwide sought repayment for the estimated $133bn already collected by Washington.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump announced the increase “effective immediately” and said the decision was based on a review of the “ridiculous, poorly written and extraordinarily anti-American decision” issued by the Supreme Court on Friday.
By a six-to-three vote, the court ruled it was unconstitutional for Trump to unilaterally set and change tariffs, since the power to tax lies with the US Congress.
The ruling struck down tariffs that Trump had imposed on nearly every country under an emergency powers law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
Trump criticized the majority justices as “fools and lapdogs” during a news conference after the ruling, calling them an “embarrassment to their families”. He promptly signed an executive order – based on a different statute, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 – to impose a universal 10 percent tariff starting Tuesday.
The 15 percent hike announced on Saturday is the maximum rate permitted under that law.
However, these tariffs are limited to 150 days unless extended by Congress. No president has previously invoked Section 122, and its use may prompt further legal challenges.
It remains unclear whether an updated executive order will follow.
The White House stated that the Section 122 tariffs include exemptions for certain products, including critical minerals, metals, and energy products, according to Reuters.
Lawsuits
Trump wrote on Saturday that his administration will continue issuing other permissible tariffs.
“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,” he said.
The president has previously stated that his administration intends to rely on two other statutes allowing import taxes on specific products or countries based on national security or unfair trade practices.
Tariffs have been central to Trump’s economic agenda, serving as a tool to achieve various goals – from reviving domestic manufacturing to pressuring other nations to combat drug trafficking, and encouraging warring countries toward peace.
He has also used tariffs, or the threat of them, as leverage to extract trade concessions from foreign governments.
Federal data shows that the US Treasury collected over $133bn from the import taxes imposed under the emergency powers law as of December.
Since the Supreme Court’s decision, more than a thousand lawsuits have been filed by importers in the US seeking refunds, with more cases expected.
While legally valid, navigating these claims is not straightforward, especially for smaller firms, said John Diamond, director of the Center for Tax and Budget Policy at Rice University.
“It’s pretty clear that they will win in court, but it’ll take some time,” Diamond said. “Once we get the court orders in effect, I don’t think those refunds will be all that messy for larger firms. Smaller firms are going to have a much more difficult time getting through the process.”
Foreign governments are facing “the real mess”, Diamond added.
“What do you do if you’re Taiwan, or Great Britain, and you have this existing trade deal, but now it’s kind of been turned upside down?”
The US-Taiwan trade deal reduces the general tariff on Taiwanese goods from 20 percent to 15 percent, matching rates for Asian trade partners South Korea and Japan, in exchange for Taipei agreeing to purchase roughly $85bn of US energy, aircraft, and equipment.
The US-United Kingdom deal imposes a 10 percent tariff on most UK goods and lowers higher tariffs on UK cars, steel, and aluminium imports.
‘Pickpocketing the American people’
Following the Supreme Court ruling, Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, told Fox News on Friday that these countries must honor their agreements even if they call for higher rates than Section 122 tariffs.
Exports to the US from countries such as Malaysia and Cambodia will continue to be taxed at their negotiated rates of 19 percent, even though the universal rate is lower, Greer said.
Indonesia’s chief negotiator for US tariffs, Airlangga Hartarto, said the trade deal establishing US tariffs at 19 percent, signed on Friday, remains in force despite the court decision.
The ruling could be positive for countries like Brazil, which has not negotiated a deal with Washington to reduce its 40 percent tariff rate but could now see it fall to 15 percent, at least temporarily.
Governments worldwide have reacted to the Supreme Court decision and Trump’s subsequent tariff announcement with cautious optimism, trepidation, and frustration.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he would coordinate a joint European stance ahead of talks with Trump in early March, while Hong Kong’s secretary for financial services and the Treasury, Christopher Hiu, described the situation surrounding Trump’s new tariffs as a “fiasco”.
With the November midterm elections approaching, Trump’s approval rating on his economic handling has steadily declined during his year in office.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed Monday showed 34 percent of respondents approving of Trump’s economic management, while 57 percent disapproved.
Democrats, needing to flip only three Republican-held seats in the US House of Representatives to secure a majority in November, blame Trump’s tariffs for worsening the rising cost of living.
They quickly condemned Trump’s new tariff threat on Saturday.
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee accused Trump of “pickpocketing the American people” with his newly announced higher tariff.
“A little over 24 hours after his tariffs were ruled illegal, he’s doing anything he can to make sure he can still jack up your costs,” they wrote on social media.
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, a Trump opponent, added that “he [Trump] does not care about you”.
