US-SA tariffs: Trump makes another tweak

US President Donald Trump. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP President Donald Trump raised the global duty on imports into the United States to 15 percent on Saturday, doubling down on his promise to maintain his aggressive tariff policy a day after the Supreme Court ruled much of it illegal. Shortly after the court’s 6-3 ruling that rejected the president’s authority to impose tariffs under a 1977 economic emergency powers act, Trump had initially announced a new 10 percent global levy by invoking a different legal avenue.

At the same time, the Republicans launched an extraordinary personal attack on the conservative justices who had sided with the majority, slamming their “disloyalty” and calling them “fools and lap dogs.” The ruling was a stunning rebuke by the high court, which has largely sided with the president since he returned to office, and marked a major political setback in striking down Trump’s signature economic policy that has roiled the global trade order. Saturday’s announcement is sure to provoke further uncertainty as Trump carries on with a trade war that he has used to cajole and punish countries, both friend and foe. It is the latest move in a process that has seen a multitude of tariff levels for countries sending goods into the United States set and then altered or revoked by Trump’s team over the past year.

According to a White House fact sheet, exemptions remain for sectors that are under separate probes, including pharma, and goods entering the US under the US-Mexico-Canada agreement. Friday’s court ruling did not impact sector-specific duties Trump separately imposed on steel, aluminium, and various other goods. Government probes still underway could lead to additional sectoral tariffs.