President Donald Trump at the White House after returning from a trip to Scotland, on July 29, 2025. Credit – Mehmet Eser—Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again approach to his signature tariff policy has taken global economies on a rollercoaster in just the first six months of his second presidential term.
Trump slammed nearly every country in the world with tariffs as high as 50% on April 2, so-called “Liberation Day.” A week later, he announced a temporary reduction that was meant to end July 9, during which time he said he’d negotiate “90 deals in 90 days” to re-balance U.S. trade relationships. But as that deadline neared, Trump announced a new deadline of Aug. 1 and began unveiling a slate of new tariffs on more than a dozen countries. Throughout this all, Trump has also announced sectoral tariffs on cars, steel, aluminum, and copper, as well as threatened countries appearing to align against American interests, like members of the intergovernmental organization BRICS, with additional tariffs.
Read More: Trump’s Trade Deals, Negotiations, and New Tariffs for Each Country
On the eve of Trump’s Aug. 1 trade deal deadline, the White House once again unveiled new tariff rates on much of the world, most of which will take effect Aug. 7.
For countries with which the U.S. has a trade surplus—meaning that it exports more to those countries than it imports from them—the “universal” tariff is 10%, which remains unchanged from April 2. For countries with which the U.S. has a trade deficit, the new baseline rate is 15%, which will apply to around 40 countries. More than a dozen other countries will face higher tariff rates, either imposed by Trump in a more recent announcement or obtained through trade agreements with the U.S.
The U.S. has reached trade deals or framework agreements with a number of countries: the European Union, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, the U.K., and Vietnam. The U.S. also reached an agreement with China, although the two sides are continuing to negotiate the details ahead of a later deadline of Aug. 12, which the White House has indicated could be extended. And Trump has granted Mexico a 90-day extension to facilitate further trade talks.
The White House has bragged about raising more than $150 billion from tariffs over the past six months, while Trump has said “tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again.” (A Monthly Treasury Statement from June shows that the government has collected around $108 billion in customs duties since October 1, 2024, while the Treasury Department reported the collection of upwards of $28 billion in duties in July.) Revenue from tariffs is likely to increase as higher tariffs for dozens of countries go into effect. Many economists, however, say tariffs are effectively a tax on American consumers and have warned that trade tensions could trigger a U.S.—or even global—recession.
Here’s a breakdown of all Trump’s tariffs.
Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs
Trump has said his tariffs are aimed at balancing the U.S.’s trade relationships with the rest of the world in two main ways: firstly, by pressuring countries to negotiate trade deals more favorable to the U.S., and secondly by incentivizing firms to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.
The President has railed against the country’s trade deficits with much of the rest of the world, though he’s also imposed tariffs on countries that the U.S. has a trade surplus with, like Brazil. It’s true that the U.S. imports much more goods from most countries than it exports, but economists have pointed out that that’s a position many other countries are striving to be in. The U.S. exports mainly services—like banking services, software, and entertainment—while many poorer countries have much larger and lower-paying manufacturing sectors. Economists have also said tariffs aren’t necessarily an effective way to address trade deficits and are instead likely to cause higher prices for American consumers, unsettle American businesses, and erode trust between the U.S. and its trading partners, leading trade and diplomatic partnerships away from the U.S. in the long term.
Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, imposed April 2, were “reciprocal” based on what he said were tariffs and other manipulations against the U.S. by other countries, although economists have criticized his method of calculating those rates: each country’s trade surplus with the U.S. was divided by its exports to the U.S. and then divided by two.
It’s not yet clear how the new rates, some of which Trump began announcing July 7 in “letters” sent to each country and shared on his Truth Social platform, were determined. Trump has said they are based on countries’ “Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers.” For certain countries though he cited reasons unrelated to trade. The 50% tariff on Brazil, for example, is based partly on what Trump called a “Witch Hunt” against the country’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally who has been charged with attempting to launch a coup to stay in office in 2022.
Other Trump tariffs
Trump has also imposed tariffs on specific sectors, including a 25% tariff on cars and car parts and a 50% tariff on most foreign imports of steel, aluminum, and copper. Several more sectoral tariffs may be introduced pending Section 232 Commerce Department investigations, such as on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, and commercial aircraft and engines.
Imports subjected to section 232 tariffs do not always “stack” on top of other tariffs. For example, a car imported from overseas will be tariffed at 25%, but will not be subject to tariffs on aluminum, steel, or other “stacking” tariffs. Metals tariffs supersede country “reciprocal” tariffs but both steel and aluminum tariffs can apply to the same product. Some trade agreements, like the U.S.-E.U. deal, also cap sectoral tariffs at a lower rate. For example, the 15% “reciprocal” tariff on the E.U. also applies to cars and car parts.
Some sectoral tariffs predate Trump’s second term. Trump introduced tariffs on various sectors and countries in his first presidential term. In January 2018, he imposed tariffs on all solar panels, for which China is the world’s largest producer, and washing machines. In June that year he also introduced 25% tariffs on over 800 products from China. Trump also imposed a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum from Canada, Mexico and the E.U.
These tariffs set off retaliatory moves from the impacted countries, though most U.S. and retaliatory tariffs from Trump’s first term eventually expired or were rolled back. The U.S. and China reached a truce in January 2020 after escalating tit-for-tat tariffs, but former President Joe Biden extended the solar panel tariffs in 2022.
Some countries might also be subject to additional tariffs based on political reasons. Trump announced on July 6 that he would tariff countries aligning themselves with BRICS at an additional 10% rate. Among the countries whose new rates have been announced so far, that includes Brazil, South Africa, India and Iran. It’s not yet clear whether it affects countries that the U.S. has cut a deal with, like China or Indonesia.
Trump has also cracked down on what was known as the de minimis exemption, which exempted small shipments valued at $800 or less from customs duties and declarations. The tax provision, which was introduced in 1938, has largely benefitted fast fashion giants like Shein and Temu, which have sent millions of packages a day to the U.S. Trump closed the exemption for shipments from China and Hong Kong in an April 2 executive order, tariffing the low-value shipments from those exporters effectively at a 120% rate from May 2 (after tit-for-tat tariff hikes). He then reversed course with a May 12 executive order that eased levies on low-value imports. Then, he reversed course again with a July 30 executive order, ending the tariff exemption for all countries around the world.
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