The White House took a step forward with President Trump’s plan to remake the trade landscape by releasing new details Thursday evening that included a raft of new tariff rates, now formally authorized by executive order, which set levels from 10% to 40% on nearly every global trading partner.
The move represents a giant shakeup in the US’s trade order, outlining a 35% tariff on Canada (up from 25% currently) as well as rates above 30% on nations from South Africa to Switzerland.
But there’s a last minute catch, as nearly all these new rates (except for Canada’s) will not go into effect for seven days, instead of a midnight Friday deadline Trump had previously set.
“These modifications shall be effective … on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time 7 days after the date of this order,” reads the now signed order.
The new tariff rate on Canada is under a different order focused on illicit drugs and and will take effect Friday, as originally planned.
For other nations, the order also allows for an additional delay, with lower, previous rates applied to goods that are loaded onto ships before Aug. 7 that then enter the United States before Oct. 5.
But once the new tariffs are in effect, they will be far-reaching.
India, after initial high hopes for a deal that have bogged down in recent weeks, is set to face a 25% rate, though negotiators there now appear to have another week to make offers.
Taiwan is another top US trading partner and is set to see a 20% rate.
The White House documentation released Thursday also confirmed some of the parameters of recent deals with other top trading partners, including a 15% rate on the European Union, South Korea, and Japan.
It also confirmed that 19%-20% rates are in the offing for a range of Southeast Asian nations and an unchanged 10% rate is set for the United Kingdom.
Thursday’s advancement did come after one significant delay Thursday, with a 90-day pause on new tariffs on Mexico, as the president decided to keep rates at 25% after a “very successful” phone call, according to Trump.
Dozens of other smaller trading partners saw their tariff rates upped to 15% from 10%, with some nations not included in Tuesday’s release.
Those excluded countries included many nations with which the US currently has a trade surplus. They are set to see their rates remain at 10%, in a surprise for some after comments from Trump in recent days suggested 15% would be his new minimum.
Thursday’s order also includes a focus on the growing issue of transshipping, promising an additional tariff of 40 percent for any goods deemed “to have been transshipped to evade applicable duties” without providing a further definition on what would meet that standard.
Thursday’s announcement comes as previously announced 50% levies on copper are also set to go into effect at midnight as well alongside the new Canadian duties.
The White House also has plans for 50% tariffs on Brazil which are set to be in fully in effect one day sooner — as that order is operating under its own seven-day clock that began Wednesday.
The rapid-fire tariff moves also came as small business importers and the US Justice Department clashed Thursday over whether Trump even has the authority to take these actions.
Trump’s team relied on the 1977 International Economic Emergency Powers Act to move around the rates, saying it authorizes the president to “regulate” international commerce after declaring a national emergency.
It’s also the latest culmination of Trump’s intense second term focus on tariffs. He declared “I am a tariff man” back in 2018 but has gone much further in his second term.
The latest calculations from the Yale Budget Lab found that these new duties, before Thursday’s adjustments, suggested consumers already face an overall effective tariff rate of 18.4%, which is the highest rate since 1933.
That figure is sure to rise in the coming days as the new tariff levels are digested.
The duties — as Trump himself notes almost every day — have also already set multiple new tariff revenues records even at the previous levels centered around a 10% floor for tariffs.
As Trump put it on Thursday, “Tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again” adding that lower levels seen in previous decades were hurting America and “now the tide has completely turned.”
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow’s stock prices
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
