Trump Raises Worldwide Tariff to 15% After Supreme Court Struck Down Emergency Tariffs

President Donald Trump said he will raise his worldwide tariff on imports to 15%, the maximum allowed under the law he is now using. The announcement came days after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that he lacked authority to impose the duties under the emergency law he had invoked.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the increase from the 10% rate he set on Friday was “effective immediately,” adding that the administration would, in the coming months, “determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs.” He called the court’s ruling “ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American.”

The Supreme Court’s majority held that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which Trump used for his sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs, does not give a president the power to impose tariffs. “We hold that IEEPA does not authorise the president to impose tariffs,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. He added that, in the law’s half-century of existence, no president had invoked it to impose tariffs “of this magnitude and scope.”

Trump’s replacement vehicle is Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which lets a president impose tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days to address large balance-of-payments deficits. After 150 days, the duties can continue only with Congress’s agreement. He signed an executive order imposing a 10% global tariff under that authority on Friday evening, then raised the rate to the legal ceiling after reviewing the ruling, according to The Times. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CNN the new global tariff is likely a temporary measure while practical steps on tariffs under other trade authorities are completed, according to the Wellington Post, which also reported that goods compliant with the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement remain exempt.

Allies face a steeper bill

The uniform 15% rate replaces the preferential arrangements several countries held. Until Friday, a 10% rate was the best deal available, enjoyed by about half a dozen favored nations including Britain. The British Chambers of Commerce said the increase means “an extra 5 per cent increase in tariffs on a wide range of UK goods exports to the US,” warning it would be “bad for trade, bad for US consumers and businesses and weaken global economic growth.” The Canadian Chamber of Commerce cautioned Ottawa to “prepare for new, blunter mechanisms to be used to reassert trade pressure, potentially with broader and more disruptive effects.”

Trump has directed most of his anger at the court. He said he was “ashamed” of certain justices, called those who voted against him “a disgrace to our nation,” and singled out two of his own appointees, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. Vice President JD Vance called the ruling “lawlessness from the Court, plain and simple.” Kavanaugh, in a dissent Trump praised, wrote that the decision might not substantially constrain a president because other federal statutes could justify most of the tariffs.

The tariffs remain unpopular with the public. About six in ten Americans said Trump had gone too far on tariffs, according to an AP-NORC poll last month, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated that Americans paid 86% of the total cost of tariffs in November.

Reporting based on coverage by The Times and the Wellington Post.