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 new levels from 15% to 40% on over 70 countries.
The move represents a giant shakeup in the US’s trade order, with outlined rates that range from a 35% tariff on Canada (up from 25%) to rates above 30% on nations from Algeria to Switzerland.
But there’s a last minute catch, as these new rates will not go into effect for seven days, instead of a midnight Friday deadline as originally planned — according to the text of the order.
India, after initial high hopes for a deal that have bogged down in recent weeks, is set to face a 25% rate but now appears to have another week to negotiate.
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 including 19%-20% rates on a range of Southeast Asian nations and an unchanged 10% rate on the United Kingdom.
Dozens of other nations also saw their tariff rates upped to 15% from 10% — in line with deals sketched out in recent days that included that headline 15% tariff rate on Europe, South Korea, and Japan.
But some nations were not included in Tuesday’s release — those omitted included many nations with which the US currently has a trade surplus — who therefore are set to see their rates remain at 10%, in a surprise relief for some after comments from Trump in recent days suggested 15% would be his new minimum.
