The Many Trump Tariffs That Will Remain in Place

All the country-specific tariffs that Trump had imposed in his second term have now been struck down, as they were predicated on the IEEPA statute that the Supreme Court just determined does not authorize levies. But Trump has also implemented many product-specific tariffs that apply to categories of imports regardless of their country of origin under the authority of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, enacted in 1962.

Section 232 authorizes the president to impose tariffs on imports that “threaten to impair U.S. national security.” The Commerce Department must first conduct an “investigation” — which is almost always pretextual — and determine that certain imports are dangerous, which it invariably does nowadays. Trump abused this authority to put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports during his first term, and he has greatly expanded his exploitation of the law in his second term. Last year, new tariffs under Section 232 raised $49 billion, or more than a quarter of Trump’s total tariff revenues.

Because the ruling today invalidated only the tariffs predicated on IEEPA, all Section 232 tariffs will remain in place. Based on Yale Budget Lab’s excellent accounting, here are all the duties under this statute that Trump has implemented:

• Steel and aluminum: 5o percent tariff — increased from 25 percent — on both of these metals and their derivative products, including dishwashers, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, freezers, stoves, ovens, and food waste disposals; 25 percent for the United Kingdom; goods under the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) are duty-free.
• Copper: 50 percent tariff on semi-finished copper and derivative copper products (not raw materials); USMCA goods are duty-free.
• Automobiles: 25 percent tariff on both completed automobiles and auto parts; discounted rates for the European Union and Japan; either duty-free or lower rates under USMCA.
• Trucks and buses: 25 percent tariff on medium/heavy trucks and their parts, and 10 percent on buses; limited USMCA relief.
• Lumber and wood products: 10 percent tariff on softwood, 25–30 percent on upholstered furniture, and 25–50 percent on cabinets and vanities; USMCA goods are duty-free.

Now that the IEEPA tariffs are done, expect more levies to be justified under Section 232. The Trump administration has already begun national-security “investigations” into U.S. imports of pharmaceuticals and their ingredients, semiconductors, medical equipment, industrial machinery, wind turbines, commercial aircraft and jet engines, critical minerals, drones, and the chemical compound polysilicon. American businesses and consumers can look forward to paying more for all of that.

Also: Trump has already announced his intention to impose a new, sweeping tariff of 10 percent on all imports under another obscure law, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. It authorizes the president to charge duties for up to 150 days “to deal with large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits,” which we don’t have.

During that period, his administration will conduct investigations into countries whose trade policy “is unjustifiable and burdens or restricts United States commerce” under Section 301 of the same law, which would allow for more permanent tariffs. We can be sure that such broad statutory language will allow Trump’s lawyers to get very creative. Would you believe that the Trade Act of 1974 was enacted to encourage freer international trade?