President Donald Trump on Saturday said a 10% blanket global tariff that takes effect on Tuesday will rise to 15% and could be extended beyond 150 days by an act of Congress. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
President Donald Trump said he will raise global tariffs from 10% to 15% after the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that his emergency tariffs are illegal.
The president criticized the court’s ruling in a social media post while announcing the increased global tariffs in a social media post on Saturday.
“Based on a thorough, detailed and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday, after many months of contemplation, by the United States Supreme Court, please let this statement serve to represent that I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” he said in the long-winded post.
“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 — greater than ever before!!!” Trump added.
He cited a seldom-used legal provision, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which he said enables the president to impose a blanket tariff on all goods imported into the United States for 150 days, which Congress would need to extend afterward for them to remain in effect.
That tariff takes effect on Tuesday, which is when Trump is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union Address, and Saturday’s announcement raises the global tariff by another 5% after Trump set a 10% tariff under the Trade Act of 1974 on Friday.
The 15% tariff is in addition to existing tariffs on particular nations or goods brought into the nation.
Some products, though, are exempt from the blanket tariff, including important minerals, pharmaceuticals and metals.
The Supreme Court on Friday ended the president’s prior tariffs in a 6-3 majority decision, after which he immediately imposed the 10% global tariff.
The court ruled that Congress did not authorize the tariffs and said the president does not have the authority to impose them.
Trump had imposed them under the auspices of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 after declaring a national emergency.
National Black Farmers Association founder John Boyd called the court’s decision a “huge win for me and a big loss for the president,” the BBC reported.
Former U.K. trade adviser Allie Renison wasn’t as upbeat about the court’s ruling.
“While it may seem like a good day for free trade, I think trade actually just got a lot messier,” Renison told the BBC.
She described the nation’s current tariffs as a “patchwork approach” that makes it harder for trade partners to assess the business climate.
The court’s ruling on Friday does not affect many types of tariffs, including those on lumber, aluminum, steel and vehicles.
Those tariffs were imposed under a different law that was not challenged in the same case that led to Friday’s ruling.
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Team USA members celebrate after the United States’ Megan Keller scored the winning goal in sudden death three on three overtime of the Gold Medal Game between Canada and the USA at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Italy on Thursday. Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI | License Photo
