US customs agents began collecting President Donald Trump’s unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday, with higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners due to start next week.
The initial 10% “baseline” tariff paid by US importers took effect at US seaports, airports and customs warehouses at 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT), ushering in Trump’s full rejection of the post-World War Two system of mutually agreed tariff rates.
“This is the single biggest trade action of our lifetime,” said Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade lawyer at Hogan Lovells and former White House trade adviser during Trump’s first term.
Shaw told a Brookings Institution event on Thursday that she expected the tariffs to evolve over time as countries seek to negotiate lower rates. “This is a pretty seismic and significant shift in the way that we trade with every country on earth,” she added.
Trump’s Wednesday tariff announcement shook global stock markets, wiping out $5 trillion in value for S&P 500 index (.SPX), opens new tab companies by Friday’s close, a record two-day decline. Driven by recession fears, prices for oil and commodities plunged, while investors fled to the safety of government bonds.
Among the countries first hit with the 10% tariff were Australia, Britain, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Saudi Arabia despite their having goods trade deficits with the US last year. White House officials have said many countries would run larger deficits with the US if their policies were fairer.
A US Customs and Border Protection bulletin provided a 51-day grace period, opens new tab for cargoes loaded or in transit to the US before 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday. These cargoes need to arrive by May 27 to avoid the 10% duty.
Trump’s higher “reciprocal” tariff rates of 11% to 50% are due to take effect on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. ET. European Union imports will face a 20% tariff, while Chinese goods will be hit with a 34% tariff, bringing Trump’s total new levies on China to 54%.
Beijing on Saturday said, “The market has spoken” in rejecting Trump’s tariffs. China applied a slew of countermeasures, including extra levies of 34% on all US goods and export curbs on some rare earth minerals.
“China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close,” Trump said on Saturday on social media. “THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”
Shortly after posting the comment, Trump was spotted arriving at his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, reading a New York Post article covering China’s retaliation to US tariffs and the stock market fall.
(Reuters)
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