A new tariff on most global imports went into effect in the United States just after midnight Tuesday at 10 percent, despite President Trump’s pledge over the weekend to impose a 15 percent rate.
The 10 percent surprised executives and foreign leaders, who had been expecting the 15 percent rate that Mr. Trump announced in a social media post on Saturday. The change underscored the confusion and uncertainty of the past few days, after the Supreme Court on Friday struck down many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs and he quickly vowed to replace them.
A White House spokesman said that the 15 percent increase was still being worked on and that he did not know when it would go into effect. The change would require additional presidential action, he said.
Within hours of the Supreme Court ruling on Friday, Mr. Trump said he would impose a 10 percent tariff globally to replace the ones the court had ruled against. Then, on Saturday, he said he was raising that rate to 15 percent.
But a notice released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection late Monday said that as of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, imports would be subject to an additional tariff rate of 10 percent, not 15 percent. The notice contained previously announced exemptions for products like aircraft, tropical fruit, iron and steel, textiles from Central America and products that qualify for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Stephen Brown, an economist for Capital Economics, said the imposition of a 10 percent tariff left the average U.S. tariff rate about three and a half percentage points lower than it was before the Supreme Court decision. That means imports will be taxed at a slightly lower rate than they were last week, although the difference would narrow if Mr. Trump raised rate to 15 percent.
“In either scenario, several economies — including Brazil, China and others in Asia — now find themselves in a much better positions,” Mr. Brown said. He added that the favorable situations might not last, however, because the Trump administration had begun trade investigations into unfair practices that could result in more tariffs.
Ana Swanson covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade.
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