The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed a 10 percent tariff on all goods not covered by current exemptions, returning to the global rate first announced by President Trump after the Supreme Court struck a blow to the bulk of his emergency import taxes.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released a notice on Monday night showing imports would “be subject to an additional ad valorem rate of 10%,” despite Trump suggesting on Saturday that the rate would increase to 15 percent.
The notice cites Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to enact tariffs to address “large and serious United States balance-of-payment deficits,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer previously said Friday. Any levies issued under Section 122 last up to 150 days and are limited to 15 percent of the product’s estimated value. Congress must approve on extending these tariffs.
It remains unclear why the tariff rate was readjusted to 10 percent.
The Supreme Court ruled against his sweeping tariffs –– implemented under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) –– in a 6-3 decision on Friday. The law allows the president to “regulate” imports when necessary to respond to national emergencies that pose an “unusual and extraordinary” threat — a threshold the high court ruled Trump’s tariffs did not meet.
The president denounced the decision and announced in a post on Truth Social early Saturday that the global tariff rate would “immediately” be increased “to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump slammed the majority opinion of the court and praised Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. He also lashed out at Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, his first and third high court appointees, saying their decision against his tariffs were “an embarrassment to their families.”
In contrast, he said Kavanaugh made him “proud.”
The court’s ruling did not address tariff refunds but set the upcoming battle to be held in the lower courts. More than $175 billion is at risk of being refunded, Penn Wharton Budget Model economists said in a recent analysis first reported by Reuters.
Friday’s ruling also set the state for Republican members of Congress to battle it out over how to respond to the court’s order. Some of Trump’s allies, led by Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), are already pushing a plan to move legislation under the special budget reconciliation process, which would allow tariff rates to go up with a simple majority vote.
Other Republicans, like Kentucky Sens. Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, praised the court’s ruling, leaving other GOP lawmakers questioning how to proceed. Sen. Ted Budd (N.C.) told The Hill on Friday that he dislikes tariffs “but there’s more things beyond tariffs that we need to address.”
Budd added, “There’s a lot of things we should [do] through reconciliation.”
