The Trump administration is moving forward with new tariff measures after the Supreme Court knocked down the president’s use of emergency power for them.
A 10% surcharge on imports took effect this week, though President Trump suggested he would raise it to 15%, the maximum permitted under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, centered on the balance of payments.
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A new proclamation to increase the rate to 15% “where appropriate” is being drafted, according to United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who did not provide details on the timing or framing of it. The timing is still being discussed and “depends on the status of existing negotiations and existing deals,” according to Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council.
“Even in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision, we're going to be able to have a lot of continuity in the president's trade program. It removes some of the flexibility and speed, which is unfortunate. The president used that to great effect to change countries' behavior, open foreign markets, induce investment in the United States. Now, all that being said, we have alternative tools to continue to carry out the president's trade policy,” Greer said.
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Officials said national security tariffs under Section 232 and existing Section 301 tariffs would remain in place. The administration also plans to initiate further Section 301 investigations in the coming days, according to Greer.
While section 122 tariffs require congressional action to extend them beyond 150 days, President Trump contends congressional action won’t be necessary.
Greer believes the administration would not need the authority beyond 150 days.
“Yes, we think, we think that's right, because we have alternative tools. Section 301, Section 232. These are investigations, on the one hand, of unfair trading practices, and then the other, of national security. And a lot of these are already happening,” Greer said.
The administration has utilized section 232 tariffs on auto, steel and aluminum, and opened investigations on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals previously.
“We already have Section 301 tariffs in place on China. We have an open investigation on Brazil," Greer said. "We'll open a few more investigations in coming days and weeks, and at the end of those investigations, we'll be able to identify any unfair trading practices, and if we can't resolve them completely, the level of tariffs that might be appropriate to try to resolve them, we expect at the end of the day, we'll be in compliance with our deals, our trading partners will be in compliance with our deals, and we'll have tariff levels that are quite similar to what we have. Now, I can't prejudge it all because there are legal processes, but I think you're not going to see a lot of disruption."
Greer acknowledges the limitation of Section 122 tariffs absent a renewal from Congress.
“I mean, if they want to, we're happy to have that conversation. But we think we'll use these other tools to deal with these unfair trading practices and national security issues that we detect,” he said.
President Trump has also pointed to Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which allows a tariff up to half a product’s value based on discrimination, in the hours after the court’s decision. Though he has not utilized it, Greer suggested it remains on the table.
“We look at everything. We've studied section 338. We think there are probably some circumstances where it might be useful. I'm not sure if that's the one that is going to be for, you know, a super broad action, but we're not taking anything off the table,” Greer said.
While President Trump said “almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal they already made” during his State of the Union speech, he has also warned on Truth Social that “Any Country that wants to “play games” with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have “Ripped Off” the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to. BUYER BEWARE!!!”
“I mean, take, for example, Section 301, we'll do these investigations. We'll look at unfair trading practices. Many of the deals that we already have struck. They at least partially mitigate this, and that allows us to have some negotiating flexibility with these countries. That's what the statute allows us to do," Greer said. "Now, if countries don't want to negotiate, they don't want to do a deal, they don't want to resolve some of these unfair trading practices we identify through these investigations, then the President has the authority to take the measures he needs to respond to that, take responsive action, but to the extent they negotiate, they keep their deals. It allows us to be a little bit more flexible in how we respond.”
The European Parliament’s International Trade Committee paused work on an EU-US trade deal, noting a need for greater certainty.
“Pure tariff chaos from the US administration. No one can make sense of it anymore — only open questions and growing uncertainty for the EU and other US trading partners,” Bernd Lange, chair of the committee, wrote on X ahead of the move.
But Greer contends “a lot of the parts of the deal remain in place and in a good spot.”
“The part you're talking about is their bill to lower their tariffs for us. It's in its process. It's been winding through their domestic procedures. Every country has to have some domestic procedure. They have not reneged on the deal. I've talked to them over the weekend, while they see where the section 122 action plays out. They're just waiting,” Greer said.
“Other parts of the deal, they have things related to corporate due diligence and sustainability, where they've accommodated our concerns already. We have negotiations on a bunch of non-tariff barriers with them. We're talking about sharing common auto standards. So a lot of these things continue and are ongoing. We've given them concessions related to auto tariffs that all remains in place. So a lot of the parts of the deal remain in place and in a good spot,” he added.
