US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he would increase the global 10 percent tariff he announced one day earlier to 15 percent, stirring up more economic turbulence as he lashed out at the US Supreme Court over its ruling that his preferred mechanism for applying tariffs was illegal.
“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,” Trump wrote on a social media post.
Trump is rushing to preserve his trade agenda following the court’s ruling against his use of an emergency-powers law to impose his “reciprocal” tariffs around the world and to use levies as a cudgel to bend foreign governments to his will. Enraged by the decision, Trump initially imposed a 10 percent global tariff on foreign goods on Friday, hours after the high court ruling, as he seeks to maintain the duties he insists are key to his economic and national security power.
Photo: Reuters
However, his post on Saturday made clear he had decided that 10 percent was not enough, even though he said on Friday: “Every single thing I said today is guaranteed certainty.”
The US president’s efforts to restore and maintain the tariffs underscored the economic volatility ahead. The tools he is left with are less nimble than the sweeping authority he had claimed under emergency powers and would be subjected to legal challenges.
Additional details were not immediately forthcoming on how soon the 15 percent tariff would go into effect. The initial 10 percent tariffs Trump announced on Friday were scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, according to a White House document.
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