What to know about Trump’s latest tariffs​ 

OUT WITH THE OLD

What to know about Trump’s latest tariffs

Mario Tama/Getty Images

In with the new: The US slapped fresh tariffs on dozens of trade partners, accusing them of forced labor violations, right as the clock ran out yesterday on temporary levies that President Trump previously imposed.

Who: The new tariffs apply to 60 trade partners—including China, Canada, and the EU—a group that accounts for 99.4% of US imports, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.

What: The duties range from 10% to 12.5%. They replace a 150-day global tariff of 10% that Trump imposed in February after the Supreme Court blocked his sweeping “liberation day” tariffs. The new import taxes have some exceptions:

• Oil, natural gas, and many goods not produced in the US are exempt.
• Items like aluminum and steel, which already face import taxes Trump enacted last year under a national security trade law provision, won’t have this added.

Why and how: The Trump administration says countries affected by the new tariffs have failed to curb forced labor, which can enable a US president to impose import taxes under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Section 301 targets countries with unfair trade practices.

How everyone’s reacting

The EU and other countries have recently taken steps to ban forced labor. In a chorus of unhappy trade partners, Australia said the new tariffs are “completely unjustified,” the EU called them “not really grounded,” New Zealand said the US is “looking for any way to put a tariff rate back on,” and Brazil vowed to appeal to the World Trade Organization.

In the US, a group of small businesses sued yesterday to stop the new levies. Economically, the “triple whammy” of more tariffs, war-induced spikes in energy costs, and skyrocketing AI spending is aggravating inflation “angst,” per Bloomberg.

Looking ahead…the US is planning two more waves of Section 301 tariffs on the grounds of 1) excess manufacturing and 2) what Trump called the EU’s “illegal and highly unethical” fines against US tech giants.