US President Donald Trump decided to raise the 10% global tariffs he announced a day earlier to 15%, after attacking the Supreme Court over its ruling that his mechanism for implementing the tariffs was illegal.
Trump said in a social media post on Saturday: “As President of the United States of America, I will, effective immediately, raise the global tariffs imposed on countries, many of which have taken advantage of the United States for decades with impunity (until I took over!), to the legally permitted and tested level of 15%.”
Hours after the Supreme Court ruled to overturn the tariffs on Friday, Trump imposed a 10% global tariff on foreign goods, a move aimed at preserving his trade agenda.
New global tariff mechanism
Trump is implementing the new tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose tariffs for 150 days without congressional approval. Obtaining such approval is proving difficult, given that Democrats and some Republicans oppose parts of his trade policy.
The initial 10% tariffs announced by Trump on Friday were scheduled to take effect on February 24 at 12:01 a.m. Washington time, according to a White House fact sheet. He was scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address to Congress that evening in Washington. Trump's Saturday announcement did not provide details on the timing of the tariff increase.
The Supreme Court ruled on Friday, by a vote of 6 to 3, that Trump acted unlawfully when he used an old federal emergency powers law to justify his retaliatory tariffs. Last April, he invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs ranging from 10% to 50% on dozens of U.S. trading partners.
The White House and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Maintaining the existing fees imposed under Articles 301 and 232
Trump said on Friday that he would maintain a fixed 10% tariff, keeping existing duties imposed under Sections 301 and 232 in place, and ordered the U.S. Trade Representative to launch new Section 301 investigations on an accelerated timetable.
These investigations require country-by-country studies and proof of trade violations before tariffs are imposed, and may ultimately replace the base rate. Tariffs ranging from 15% to 30% on foreign cars are also under consideration, while exemptions for goods and certain agricultural products under the trade agreement between the United States, Mexico, and Canada are maintained.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement Friday: “We expect these investigations to cover most major trading partners and address areas of concern such as industrial overcapacity, forced labor, drug pricing practices, discrimination against U.S. technology companies and digital goods and services, digital services taxes, ocean pollution, and practices related to the trade of seafood, rice, and other products.”
The Supreme Court's decision raises new questions about the revenue already collected from tariffs. More than 1,500 companies have filed lawsuits regarding the tariffs with the Commercial Court in anticipation of the ruling, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
The court ruling did not address whether importers are entitled to refunds, leaving the matter to lower courts, which could jeopardize up to $170 billion, or more than half of the revenue generated by Trump's tariffs. Trump criticized the judges for failing to provide guidance, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bisent said tariff revenues are expected to remain largely unchanged in 2026 despite the ruling.
