The United States customs agents have begun collecting President Donald Trump’s unilateral 10 per cent tariff on all imports from many countries.
The initial ten per cent baseline tariff paid by U.S. importers took effect at U.S. seaports, airports and customs warehouses from Saturday midnight.
Among the countries first hit with the ten percent tariff are Australia, Britain, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection bulletin to shippers indicates no grace period for cargoes on the water at midnight on Saturday.
Trump’s higher reciprocal tariff rates of 11 percent to 50 per cent on goods from 57 larger trading partners are due to take effect from Wednesday midnight.
The initial 10% “baseline” tariff took effect at U.S. seaports, airports and customs warehouses at 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT), ushering in Trump’s full rejection of the post-World War Two system of mutually agreed tariff rates.
“This is the single biggest trade action of our lifetime,” said Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade lawyer at Hogan Lovells and former White House trade adviser during Trump’s first term.
Shaw told a Brookings Institution event on Thursday that she expected the tariffs to evolve over time as countries seek to negotiate lower rates. “But this is huge. This is a pretty seismic and significant shift in the way that we trade with every country on earth,” she added.
Trump’s Wednesday tariff announcement shook global stock markets to their core, wiping out $5 trillion in stock market value for S&P 500 companies by Friday’s close, a record two-day decline. Prices for oil and commodities plunged, while investors fled to the safety of government bonds.
Among the countries first hit with the 10% tariff are Australia, Britain, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection bulletin to shippers indicates no grace period for cargoes on the water at midnight on Saturday.
But a U.S. Customs and Border Protection bulletin did provide a 51-day grace period for cargoes loaded onto vessels or planes and in transit to the U.S. before 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday. These cargoes need arrive to by 12:01 a.m. ET on May 27 to avoid the 10% duty.
At the same hour on Wednesday, Trump’s higher “reciprocal” tariff rates of 11% to 50% are due to take effect. European Union imports will be hit with a 20% tariff, while Chinese goods will be hit with a 34% tariff, bringing Trump’s total new levies on China to 54%.