Trump prepares fresh tariffs on dozens of countries, FT reports
Tariff deadline looms: What's next for global tariffs
Reuters
July 21 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is poised to unleash fresh tariffs on dozens of countries as soon as this week, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, with his temporary 10% global tariff scheduled to expire on Friday.
The FT said the most immediate new duties are expected to be on a par with the 10% tariffs currently in place, but the administration was also working on other investigations that could grant it the legal authority to propose higher duties.
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Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
US readies new tariffs as Trump's 10% global levy to expire
Beiyi SEOW
4 min read
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says to expect 'action soon' on new tariffs targeting dozens of countries (Brendan SMIALOWSKI)
The United States is set to impose new tariffs that could hit dozens of countries soon, trade envoy Jamieson Greer signaled Tuesday, with President Donald Trump's temporary global levies due to expire this week.
The Trump administration has prepared fresh tariffs targeting 60 trading partners over their alleged failures to act against forced labor, as officials push to rebuild the US leader's trade agenda after legal setbacks.
"We expect to see some action soon," Greer told CNBC when asked if new duties were incoming. He did not specify a timeline.
Trump imposed a 10-percent global duty this year after a swath of his tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court in February, but this levy expires on Friday.
Analysts expect that new tariffs over forced labor concerns -- set between 10 percent and 12.5 percent -- would replace these temporary duties.
They come as Trump makes a renewed push to use tariffs as leverage against US trading partners, sparking fears of retaliation and diplomatic tensions.
Washington announced a fresh 25-percent duty on certain Brazilian goods last week, and on Monday unveiled a 50-percent levy on many Canadian products to take effect in 30 days.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that he was looking at "all options," adding that he and Trump had agreed to "intensify discussions" in the coming weeks on a possible deal.
On Tuesday, Trump announced a new 100 percent sector-specific tariff on imported generic drugs to take effect from August 2028, with that level rising to 200 percent in 2029.
For now, the US leader said the tariff on generic drugs would be cut to zero from August 2026, in an effort to build a window for the onshoring of such pharmaceutical production to the United States.
- Forced labor concerns -
Greer said Tuesday that new action on forced labor will cover the majority of US trade, with the moves likely to reignite trade tensions.
A 10-percent tariff rate would hit US imports from partners including Canada, the European Union, Mexico, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. They were found to have taken steps against forced labor.
Goods from over 40 other major economies like China, India and Japan face a 12.5 percent levy.
The EU previously said that it considers tariffs imposed on these grounds "unjustified."
- Canada pressure -
Washington's planned 50-percent tariff on Canada also comes as US-Mexico talks over a North American free trade pact intensify.
Washington recently declined to extend the accord in its current form.
Greer is set to travel to Mexico from Wednesday to Friday for discussions linked to a joint review of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
But negotiations with Canada have proceeded at a slower pace. Carney on Tuesday did not suggest that he would head to Washington for talks.
Some lawyers see Trump's use of an untested legal provision -- Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 -- as a means to gain leverage over Canada in USMCA negotiations.
Trade lawyer Dave Townsend of Dorsey & Whitney added that higher tariffs "appear to be aimed at encouraging an agreement between Canada and the United States, or in retaliation for the failure to reach such agreement, or both."
The question, he said, is whether both sides will start a "cycle of escalation and retaliation."
Crucially, Trump's latest salvo will not exempt affected Canadian products entering his country under the USMCA.
Trump told reporters Tuesday that the Canada tariffs were unrelated to his earlier threats over wildfire smoke that descended into the United States.
- Brazil tensions -
US plans for a 25-percent tariff on Brazilian goods over accusations of unfair trade practices have separately drawn a sharp rebuke from the Latin American giant.
The levy is due to take effect Wednesday, while shaping up as a major campaign flashpoint just months before Brazil's presidential election.
A range of products like beef, coffee and certain aircraft parts will be exempted, as will some goods that the United States does not produce.
Still, the American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil recently warned that Washington's measure places Brazil among countries "facing the most restrictive conditions for access to the US market," affecting more than $11 billion in exports.
US Set to Impose New Tariffs by Friday With Stopgap to Expire
Alicia Diaz, Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Hadriana Lowenkron
3 min read
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump is poised to impose fresh levies on products from dozens of economies by Friday, according to people familiar with the matter, a move to ensure his tariff regime remains intact even after stopgap 10% global duties lapse.
The Trump administration last month proposed new tariffs of at least 10% on 60 trading partners, citing what it said were lax forced-labor standards. The president's team is preparing to impose duties by the week's end, though it's not clear if they'll diverge from the initial proposal, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss the plans before they're public.
Trump's temporary charges are set to expire on Friday, and if the next round of levies are implemented by then, the White House would avoid any gap between the two. The plan is not final and could change.
The president applied the across-the-board 10% rate after the Supreme Court struck down his previous global tariffs earlier this year.
That duty was applied under Section 122 of the Trade Act, which allows the president to enact a 10% import surcharge for as many as 150 days to address balance-of-payments deficits. The US Court of International Trade also knocked down that tariff but limited relief only to the plaintiffs and left it broadly intact for other importers.
By moving forward with the latest proposal, Trump would cement his commitment to tariffs, despite voter concerns about the cost of living heading into November's midterm elections.
Critics of his policies argue that import taxes raise the price of consumer goods, but the president and top administration officials say that tariffs are necessary to rebuild American manufacturing might and protect domestic industries.
The administration this week vowed to impose 50% tariffs on many Canadian goods, dramatically escalating Trump's long-running trade fight with the US's northern neighbor. The US moved last week to apply a 25% tariff on many Brazilian products.
Under the Office of the US Trade Representative's proposal on addressing forced-labor used to make imported goods, items from dozens of economies including Canada, Mexico, the European Union and Taiwan would face a 10% duty. Products imported to the US from other major economies, including China, India and Japan, would be subject to a 12.5% levy.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Tuesday final implementation of the forced-labor investigation is imminent, though he declined to give specifics. Those duties would be applied under Section 301 of the Trade Act, which allows the president to unilaterally impose tariffs to combat foreign trade practices deemed to burden US commerce.
"We expect to see some action soon," Greer said Tuesday on CNBC. "I can't really specify a timeline right now — I have a responsibility to brief Congress and other stakeholders before I really reveal that kind of thing. But we do expect action soon on that front."
However, another potential slew of tariffs from a separate probe into excess capacity are not expected to be in place by Friday. Administration officials have recently said the process for those is still ongoing.
The proposed results require a formal comment period and hearings before the duties go into place. That means that the complete reimposition of Trump's emergency tariffs won't come until a later date.
Trump targets Canada with ‘nuclear option’ 50% tariffs. How to prepare your finances for another trade war
Mike Crisolago
4 min read
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President Trump is setting the stage for a potential new trade war with Canada, announcing 50% tariffs levied against a wide variety of imports from our neighbors to the north. They come into effect Aug. 19.
Trump used Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to invoke the tariffs — a move that no president has used before — after the Supreme Court ruled in February that his tariffs against nations like Canada under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were illegal.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer referenced Canada's "retaliation and discrimination" against the U.S. for previous Trump tariffs as a reason for this new levy, according to CTV. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement that Canada "has merely matched those measures," referencing Trump's attacks on Canadian sovereignty and saying Canada is "ready to intensify" trade discussions regarding the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, USMCA. Neither the White House nor the Prime Minister's Office returned Moneywise's request for comment.
One pundit, however, described Trump's invocation of Section 338 as "the nuclear option for Trump tariffs," while Ontario Premier Doug Ford called for Canada to "respond tariff for tariff, dollar for dollar" if the taxes actually come into effect in 30 days.
Dave Townsend, an international trade expert and a partner at Toronto-based international law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP, told Moneywise that the Section 338 tariff invocation simply "appears to be the fastest most expedient way" for Trump "to propose tariffs on goods from Canada, aside from IEEPA."
What will the 50% tariffs impact?
The tariffs against Canada, meanwhile, will impact some goods previously exempt under the USMCA, while excluding "energy, potash, products subject to tariffs under (section) 232 and certain other goods, such as fish or critical minerals," CTV reports.
The list of potentially tariffed products, however, is seemingly random, applying to everything from alcohol, furniture, tools and clothing to sports equipment, postage stamps and antiques between 100 and 250 years old.
The tariffs mark a retaliation against Canadian boycotts of U.S. products like spirits and wine, with imports into Canada dropping 70% and 78% respectively last year, leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. Trump also noted Canada's ongoing 25% retaliatory tariff against U.S. automobiles, and even recently threatened new tariffs over Canadian wildfire smoke blowing into multiple states (something one pundit called 'nonsense').
A new trade war may raise prices. Here's how to protect your finances now
Townsend told Moneywise that it's "hard to say" how potentially damaging to U.S. consumers a new tariff war with Canada could be. He explained that "a 50% tariff is very significant" because many U.S. importers relied on the USMCA for better rates for Canadian goods.
While some believe that the 30-day window for implementing the new tariffs signals the potential to negotiate a solution, it's a good idea to prepare your finances just in case. Experts say that includes reducing unnecessary expenses and waiting for store sales, taking advantage of credit card and cash back rewards and buying store brands or domestically-produced products, NBC reports.
Proper budgeting through it all, of course, is key, while boosting savings or an emergency fund in a high-yield savings account is another option for making money stretch further. Starting a side-hustle for extra cash and paying down high-interest debt now could also pay off if tariffs hit.
"The economic significance of the tariffs," Townsend added, "will depend at least partly on how long they are in effect, assuming they ultimately are implemented."
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The trade community quickly reacted Tuesday to the news that President Trump is set to impose 50% tariffs on an array of Canadian goods. While there's hope that cooler heads could prevail before the rules take effect, there's little optimism after 17 months of a tense relationship between the US and Canada.
"Businesses should treat them as a credible possibility," Andrew Siciliano, head of trade at KPMG, said in a note to Yahoo Finance. He's telling companies to immediately improve their position the best they can. But he acknowledged that "thirty days is a very short timeframe in supply chain planning."
Ted Murphy, an international trade lawyer at Sidley Austin, said in a note to clients that talks could avert new duties but "given the state of U.S.-Canada trade relations, I am not sure I would bet on it."
Trump signed three presidential proclamations on Monday to register White House objections to Canadian actions around automobiles, alcohol, and dairy products. In response, he announced the 50% tariffs on a variety of goods but with a stipulation that they won't go into effect for 30 days.
President Donald Trump awaits the arrival of President of Lebanon at the White House on July 21 in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) ·Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images
The Trump team said they're willing to talk with Canada, but no formal meetings are currently on the books. It's also unclear whether Monday's surprise move — based on a never-before-used provision of Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 — will stand up in court.
Joyce Adetutu, an international trade lawyer at Vinson & Elkins, noted that Trump has shown willingness to negotiate both before and after harsh new tariffs are imposed.
As such, potentially impacted businesses need to be prepared for short-term costs, but "it may not be critical at this juncture to reconsider supply chain entirely pending further discussions."
This move marks a new level of rupture and could be especially disruptive as these tariffs are set to apply even to goods that were previously exempted under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
"Canada's been very, very tough on us over the years," Trump added Tuesday in the Oval Office. He criticized Canada's leadership and claimed, "They need us to survive."
The president added that even more Canadian tariffs could be coming in the weeks ahead in response to smoke from recent wildfires.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is seen during a North Atlantic Council Meeting on Turkey on July 8. (Dogukan Keskinkilic/Anadolu via Getty Images) ·Anadolu via Getty Images
No timeline for further talks
Both Washington and Ottawa have made it clear that it's a stalemate for now.
But he announced no plans for talks and could only say "we stand ready to intensify those discussions in the coming weeks."
A senior Trump administration official added on Monday that there have been informal contacts, but there's no timeline for formal discussions.
The official added that the team is confident that Trump's legal authority to impose these tariffs would stand up in court. Section 338 hasn't been used for this purpose before, but "in our view, the terms are clear."
The contrast is stark between America's northern and southern neighbors. Face-to-face talks are on the docket with Mexico, with US Trade Representative Jameison Greer set to travel to Mexico City later this week.
The core of the tension between US and Canada appears to be that the latter was one of two countries (China being the other) to retaliate against Trump's tariffs with duties of their own.
Carney signaled little willingness to compromise there, saying in his statement that it was Trump who first violated the USMCA deal and his response "has merely matched those measures."
US President Donald Trump walks ahead of Claudia Sheinbaum, president of Mexico, and Mark Carney, prime minister of Canada, during the World Cup final on July 19 in New Jersey. (Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images) ·Alex Livesey - Danehouse via Getty Images
Stephen Brown, the chief North America economist at Capital Economics, added in his analysis that considerable uncertainty remains but that Trump could be motivated to try and make these new tariffs stick.
He noted that if this new tariff authority is implemented and upheld in courts, it "would help the administration regain some of the flexibility it lost" in February when the Supreme Court struck down Trump's blanket tariffs.
In a recent note, analysts at Raymond James offered a reminder to their clients.
"While the specific legal tools used to impose tariffs may change, the overall direction of U.S. trade policy remains the same of maintaining elevated tariff rates .... to recreate as much of the former reciprocal tariff framework as possible," they wrote.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
Yahoo Finance Washington Correspondent Ben Werschkul joins Market Catalysts to discuss President Trump's plan to impose 50% tariffs on a broad range of Canadian imports, including wine, cement, dairy products, plywood, paper, and furniture, and what the move could mean for consumers, businesses, and U.S.-Canada trade.
