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The new global tariffs on US imports imposed by American President Donald Trump have come into force at 10%, despite promises they would launch at 15%.
In an executive order signed Friday, Trump said he enacted the 10% levy to “address fundamental international payments problems and continue the Administration’s work to rebalance our trade relationships to benefit American workers, farmers, and manufacturers”. He then said Saturday they would launch at 15%.
The president has enacted the tariff round after butting heads with the country’s Supreme Court, who on Friday moved to thwart his plans for extensive import taxes.
Voting 6-3, the highest US court’s justices declared that Trump had acted illegally and beyond his remit when he introduced sweeping levies last year using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The act is a federal statute permitting the president to regulate international trade after declaring a national emergency in response to any unusual and exceptional threat to the United States originating wholly or largely from outside the country.
Trump has called the court’s recent ruling “ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American”.
On Monday, after the ruling, he threatened to impose steeper taxes on countries that “play games” with recent trade deals.
The administration is enforcing the import taxes under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which grants the president the power to introduce the tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days without the go-ahead from congress.
Trump has repeatedly made the case that tariffs can dwindle the country’s trade deficit, but the deficit climbed to a new peak last week when it stretched by 2.1% year on year to reach $1.2 trn (£890bn).
