President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he is raising the global tariff rate on most imports from 10 percent to 15 percent effective immediately.
The change followed a restructuring after a controversial Supreme Court ruling and applies to goods imported from most countries.
Supreme Court ruling and legal shift
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision in the consolidated cases Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc., ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize tariffs.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, while Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.
The decision invalidated tariffs Trump had imposed in 2025 under IEEPA, including duties tied to trade deficits and drug trafficking involving countries such as China, Mexico, and Canada.
Those earlier measures had significantly raised the average U.S. tariff rate and generated substantial revenue.
New authority under Section 122
After the ruling, Trump signed an executive order ending the IEEPA-based tariffs and then implemented a new 10 percent worldwide tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.
Section 122 permits the president to impose tariffs up to 15 percent for a maximum of 150 days to address large balance-of-payments deficits or fundamental international payments problems, after which Congress must act to extend them.
No previous president had used Section 122 for this purpose.
A day after invoking Section 122, Trump announced the tariff rate would be raised to the law’s 15 percent limit.
“I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
He said his administration would identify and issue additional legally permissible tariffs in the months ahead.
Exemptions and further actions
The new tariffs under Section 122 exclude certain goods such as agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and specified minerals and metals, and imports from Canada and Mexico remain excluded under existing trade agreements.
The administration indicated plans to pursue further actions, including investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that could lead to additional country- or product-specific tariffs following required processes.
The shift to Section 122 is framed as a temporary framework while longer-term options are explored, and the 150-day limit means Congress will need to decide whether to extend or modify the policy later in 2026.
