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US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said that the global tariff the White House imposed following its Supreme Court defeat will probably be lifted from 10 per cent to 15 per cent this week.
President Donald Trump announced the tariff rate last month after the Supreme Court ruled that the majority of the duties imposed as part of the administration’s trade war were illegal.
The administration had threatened a 15 per cent tariff but has so far only imposed a 10 per cent rate, saying that the higher duty would follow without specifying when.
Asked on Wednesday about when the 15 per cent tariff would be imposed, Bessent told CNBC: “That’s likely some time this week.”
The White House turned to a new series of laws to resurrect Trump’s tariff regime and uphold a series of agreements struck with its major trading partners.
It invoked a seldom-used piece of legislation, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, to immediately impose fresh levies on imports to the US for 150 days.
The US also retains tariffs on industries, including steel, aluminium and autos, using different legal authority. The White House is expected to launch further probes that could lead to more levies.
“It’s my strong belief that the tariff rates will be back to their old rates within five months,” Bessent told CNBC. The Treasury secretary added that other measures available to Trump to impose tariffs were “very fulsome” and “robust”, albeit “slower moving”.
Unlike the emergency powers that Trump relied on to impose his “liberation day” tariffs in April last year, the other laws that could be used to impose duties typically require US government agencies to conduct investigations.