A set of stiff tariffs against nearly 70 countries went into effect Thursday just after midnight, bringing the Trump administration one step closer to finalizing its “Liberation Day” agenda.
United States trading partners will face duties ranging from 10% to 41%, part of a recalculation of the rates Trump laid down in his original April 2 tariff announcement. Other countries not included in the executive order will face a 10% tariff.
Some countries worked furiously to avoid the levy before the deadline. Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter traveled to the U.S. without an invitation to persuade the administration not to impose a 39% levy on Switzerland.
However, the decision to impose the new rates reflects the administration’s impatience with the rolling set of extensions it granted over the last couple of months. White House communications director Steven Cheung told the Washington Examiner that the administration is “always in talks with many countries,” but a deal with the Swiss has not been announced.
The European Union delayed counter-tariffs on the U.S. by six months as it seeks to finalize a new deal with Trump. The expectation is that other countries will eventually ink deals with the U.S. that lower their current rates.
Last week, Trump announced a trade deal with the EU that will include a 15% tariff on most imports, including automobiles. The deal avoided a 30% duty on the EU before Trump reimposed tariffs.
According to a White House fact sheet, the EU will purchase $750 billion in U.S. energy and make new investments of $600 billion in the U.S. by 2028 as part of the deal.
“We just made a deal, as you know, with the EU, where they’re paying hundreds of billions of dollars, Japan paying hundreds of billions of dollars, and numerous other countries paying hundreds of billions of dollars, and we’re not even completed there,” Trump bragged on Wednesday during an event in the Oval Office.
Not all major trading partners have deals yet with the U.S., and in some cases, Trump appears to be content to allow the tariffs to stand. He threatened to raise levies on India over its purchases of Russian oil, following through on that threat in a Wednesday executive order that will go into effect in 21 days. He imposed an additional 25% levy on India, raising total tariffs on the world’s most populous country to 50%.
Trump did not immediately say if he would drop the additional tariffs on India if a deal is reached between Russia and Ukraine. “Well, we’ll determine that later, but right now, they’re paying a 50% tariff,” he said.
But David Gantz, the Will Clayton fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, predicted in an interview with the Washington Examiner that most U.S. trade partners will not see a postponement in the reciprocal tariffs this week.
“Discussions are continuing with a number of countries. Clearly, the pissing match going on with India doesn’t look like it’s going to result in any reduction in tariffs,” said Gantz. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with Switzerland, with its ridiculous 39% tariffs, but I’d be surprised if that gets settled in the next few days. So I think most of the other countries are going to be hit with the numbers that have been publicized.”
In one exception, the president delayed tariffs against Mexico for 90 days, preventing a 30% levy on the U.S. southern neighbor. Mexico instead faces a 25% tariff for most goods.
Additionally, Trump has until Aug. 12 to decide whether to extend a tariff pause between the U.S. and China.
“It could happen,” Trump told reporters about additional tariffs on China. “Depends on how we do.”
Since retaking office in January, Trump has aggressively worked to hike import tariffs, beginning with a blanket 10% levy on nations earlier this year.
As the global economy negatively reacted to the April 2 “Liberation Day” tariffs, Trump enacted a 90-day pause that would have ended on July 9, but it was extended to Aug. 1. Trump then announced another delay via executive order from the Aug. 1 deadline to Aug. 7.
He also signed an increase in tariffs against some Canadian goods from 25% to 35%, which took effect on Aug. 1.
The Trump White House promised 90 trade deals in 90 days but has not met that threshold. Instead, it has trumpeted interim deals with a series of major trading partners, including the EU, Japan, South Korea, and the UK.
“Serious trade agreements probably tend to take at least a year or two to conclude,” said Gantz. “He’s not doing agreements. He’s doing what somebody called paper napkin deals. Essentially, these are tariffs that are unilaterally applied by the Trump administration, because with everybody except China, they have the economic clout to do it.” Deborah Elms, an economist with the Hinrich Foundation, initially branded the negotiations as “napkin deals” in a previous interview last month.
The Trump administration remained confident that the economy would not respond negatively to the reciprocal tariffs.
“We’ve seen that even after Liberation Day, the market has boomed since then, overall. We’ve seen a lot of these … economic numbers be very positive,” said Cheung.
Gantz, meanwhile, predicted that the tariffs’ effect would eventually be passed onto the consumer. “My guess is by the end of October … you’re going to see more price increases than you’ve seen so far,” he said.