State Of Play In Trump's Tariffs, Threats And Delays
Here is a summary of duties President Donald Trump has introduced in his second term as he pressures allies and competitors alike to reshape US trade relationships.
US "reciprocal" tariffs -- imposed under legally contentious emergency powers -- are due to jump from 10 percent to various steeper levels for a list of dozens of economies come August 1, including South Korea, India and Taiwan.
The hikes were to take effect July 9 but Trump postponed them days before imposition, marking a second delay since their shock unveiling in April.
A 10 percent "baseline" levy on most partners, which Trump imposed in April, remains in place.
He has also issued letters dictating tariff rates above 10 percent for individual countries, including Brazil, which has a trade deficit with the United States and was not on the initial list of higher "reciprocal" rates.
Several economies -- the European Union, Britain, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines -- have struck initial tariff deals with Washington, while China managed to temporarily lower tit-for-tat duties.
Certain products like pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber are excluded from Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs, but may face separate action under different authorities.
This has been the case for steel, aluminum, and soon copper. Gold and silver, alongside energy commodities, are also exempted.
Excluded too are Mexico and Canada, hit with a different set of tariffs, and countries like Russia and North Korea as they already face sanctions.
Canadian and Mexican products were hit by 25 percent US tariffs shortly after Trump returned to office, with a lower rate for Canadian energy. Trump targeted both neighbors over illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking, also invoking emergency powers.
But trade negotiations have been bumpy. This month, Trump said Canadian goods will face a higher 35 percent duty from August 1, and Mexican goods will see a 30 percent level.
Products entering the United States under the USMCA North American free trade pact, covering large swaths of goods, are expected to remain exempt -- with Canadian energy resources and potash, used as fertilizer, to still face lower rates.
Trump has also taken special aim at China. The world's two biggest economies engaged in an escalating tariffs war this year before their temporary pullback.
The countries imposed triple-digit duties on each other at one point, a level described as a trade embargo.
After high level talks, Washington lowered its levies on Chinese goods to 30 percent and Beijing slashed its own to 10 percent.
This pause is set to expire August 12, and officials will meet for further talks on Monday and Tuesday in the Swedish capital Stockholm.
The US level is higher as it includes a 20 percent tariff over China's alleged role in the global fentanyl trade.
Beyond expansive tariffs on Chinese products, Trump ordered the closure of a duty-free exemption for low-value parcels from the country. This adds to the cost of importing items like clothing and small electronics.
Trump has targeted individual business sectors too, under more conventional national security grounds, imposing a 25 percent levy on steel and aluminum imports which he later doubled to 50 percent.
The president has unveiled plans for a 50 percent tariff on copper imports starting August 1 as well and rolled out a 25 percent tariff on imported autos, although those entering under the USMCA can qualify for a lower rate.
Trump's auto tariffs impact vehicle parts too, but new rules ensure automakers paying vehicle tariffs will not also be charged for certain other duties.
He has ongoing investigations into imports of lumber, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals that could trigger further duties.
Several legal challenges have been filed against the tariffs Trump invoked citing emergencies.
The US Court of International Trade ruled in May that the president had overstepped his authority, but a federal appeals court has allowed the duties to remain while it considers the case.
If these tariffs are ultimately ruled illegal, companies could possibly seek reimbursements.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Int'l Business Times
13 minutes ago
- Int'l Business Times
Russia Kills 25 In Ukraine, As Kremlin Says 'Committed' To Peace
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it wanted to pursue peace in Ukraine hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates. The strikes on several regions came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow with a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine -- now in its fourth year -- or face tough new sanctions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of purposefully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region -- that Russia claims as its own -- killing 16 people and wounding more than 40 others. "It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility," Zelensky said on social media in response. The Kremlin denied that claim. "The Russian army does not strike civilian targets," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP. Peskov added that Moscow had "taken note" of Trump's new deadline and told journalists that it remained "committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests." Ukraine's justice ministry said Moscow's forces hit the prison with four glide bombs, while police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 were wounded. Bricks and debris were strewn on the ground around buildings with blown-out windows, according to images released by the ministry. The facility's perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added. Rescue workers were seen searching for survivors in pictures released by the region's emergency services. The source added there were no Russian war prisoners being held at the centre. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the Zaporizhzhia attack was further evidence of Russian "war crimes". "People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection," he wrote on social media. In addition to the glide bomb attack, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones. Zelensky said that among the separate attacks, Russian forces had targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region. "Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old," Zelensky said. Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region's acting governor said. Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia's summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022. The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the sprawling front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken control of two more villages -- one in the Donetsk region, and another in the Zaporizhzhia region. The prison strike on Tuesday came on the three-year anniversary of a attack on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and that was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the strike over the night of July 29 three years ago on the detention centre in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia. Ukraine says that dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in that attack on the Olenivka detention facility. Russia has been ramping up its air attacks against Ukraine AFP Ukrainians gathered this week to mark the third anniversary of the Olenivka prison attack AFP
DW
2 hours ago
- DW
North Korea says US should abandon denuclearization push – DW – 07/29/2025
US President Donald Trump is seeking fresh talks with North Korea on its nuclear program, returning to the direct engagement seen during his first term. Kim's powerful sister has said denuclearization is off the table. North Korea on Tuesday urged the US to abandon any attempts to persuade it to abandon its nuclear weapons program. US President Donald Trump, who began his second term in January, is interested in resuming talks with North Korea on denuclearization. During his first term in the years of 2018 and 2019, Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un three times in Singapore, Vietnam and at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas. Although the Trump administration wanted North Korea to give up its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, no deal was struck between the two sides and Pyongyang continues to advance its nuclear aspirations. Kim's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, said Trump's personal relationship with the North Korean leader is "not bad." However, she said if the US administration were to use the Trump-Kim relationship to push for North Korean denuclearization, Pyongyang would consider it "nothing but a mockery." "If the US fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-US meeting will remains as a 'hope' of the US side," Kim Yo Jong said, using the acronym for North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim Yo Jong's remarks suggest that North Korea is ruling out complete denuclearization as an option if talks are relaunched with the US. A White House official told Reuters news agency that Trump is still seeking the same objectives in regards to North Korea as he did in the first term. "The president retains those objectives and remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea," the unnamed US official told Reuters. During Trump's first term, the president had sometimes a unusually friendly relationship with Kim after a tense start, with Trump saying the two leaders "fell in love." After nuclear negotiations broke down in October 2019, the two leaders began exchanging insults, with North Korea in December of that year threatening to call him a "dotard." Since Trump's first term from 2017 to 2021, US and North Korea ties have grown more fraught. Trump's successor, Joe Biden, did not continue the flashy diplomatic engagements with Kim that were a feature of Trump's first administration. Instead, the Biden administration chose to deepen ties with South Korea and Japan in a bid to further isolate Pyongyang. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video North Korea, meanwhile, has been growing closer with Russia since it launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. North Korea has sent weapons and troops to assist Russia's assault, with Moscow in turn backing North Korea's nuclear program. The US firmly opposed the invasion of Ukraine during Biden's term, with Trump in his second term also pushing Russia to commit to a ceasefire and end the conflict.
Int'l Business Times
2 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Chinese, US Officials Meet For 2nd Day Of Trade Talks In Stockholm
Chinese and US delegations met for their second day of trade negotiations in Stockholm, with both sides said to be aiming to extend a truce due to end in two weeks' time. AFP journalists saw officials from both sides, led respectively by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, enter the Swedish government building serving as the talks venue. Neither side has so far made public any information about what has gone on in the talks, which started on Monday. The negotiations are happening in the wake of a US-EU trade deal struck over the weekend that set US tariffs on most EU imports at 15 percent, but none on US goods going to the EU. The truce between China and the United States, the countries with the worlds two top economies, has temporarily set US duties on Chinese goods at 30 percent, and Chinese levies on US ones at 10 percent. That accord, reached in Geneva in May, brought down triple-digit tariffs each side had levelled at the other after a trade war sparked by US President Donald Trump spiralled into a tit-for-tat bilateral escalation. The 90-day truce is meant to end on August 12. But there are indications both delegations want to use the Stockholm talks to push the date back further. The South China Morning Post, citing sources on both sides, reported on Sunday that Washington and Beijing are expected to extend their tariff pause by a further 90 days. Trump has threatened to hit dozens of other countries with stiffer tariffs from Friday this week unless they agree to trade deals with Washington. Among them are Brazil and India, which he has warned could be targeted for 50-percent tariffs. The US leader has already announced deal outlines with five countries -- Britain, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines -- as well as the one with the 27-nation EU. Beijing says it wants to see "reciprocity" in its trade with the United States. Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said dialogue was need "to reduce misunderstandings". The previous round of of China-US talks was held in London. Analysts said many of the trade deals Trump has been publicising were leaning more on optics than on details. Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, a firm that advises on currency exchange and commodities, said an extension of the 90-day truce between China and the United States could reinforce that view. "That truce could set the stage for a Trump - (President) Xi (Jinping) handshake later this year -- another risk-on carrot for markets to chew," he said.
