Following Canada and Brazil, sixty economies—including those of the EU—are now in turn being targeted by new U.S. tariffs today, as soon as the temporary measures of this nature—which Donald Trump implemented in February—expire.
Starting at 00:01 (Washington time; 07:01 Greek time), certain products from these countries exported to the U.S. will be subject to customs duties ranging from 10 to 12.5%.
They take over from the 10% customs duties announced in February, which expire at exactly the same time.
Those provisional customs duties, which were to remain in effect for 150 days, were decided upon and implemented by U.S. President Trump following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling, which struck down most of the tariffs he had imposed since returning to the White House.
The new tariffs It is the result of «research» which was launched in mid-March by the White House Trade Representative (USTR), Jamison Greer, to determine, at least in theory, whether Washington’s trading partners have completely eliminated goods produced using «forced labor» from their supply chains.
Countries whose legislation Washington deems inadequate or incomplete on this issue will see customs duties of 10% imposed on some of their products. This is the case for EU member states, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Canada—in other words, some of the United States’ most important trading partners.
For the remaining countries—nearly forty, including China, Japan, Switzerland, and South Korea—the new tariff rate will be 12.5%.
Energy and raw materials are expected to be excluded from the list.
Other USTR «investigations» are also underway.
To ensure that they would not suffer the same fate as those that were overturned by the Supreme Court, the USTR relied on a 1974 law to impose them, a law that authorized the imposition of tariffs on products in specific sectors, such as steel, aluminum, copper, lumber for construction, and automobiles or their parts and components—which are not contested by the highest court in the United States.
Ahead of the latest round of tariffs, the Trump administration announced tariffs on Wednesday that affect some of Brazil’s exports.
And on Monday, Canada found itself facing additional tariffs 50%, which will take effect in one month.
