Trump Boosts New Global Tariff to 15% After Supreme Court Setback

WASHINGTON—President Trump said he would increase to 15% a global tariff that will replace many of the duties ruled illegal by the Supreme Court.

In a social-media post on Saturday, the president said the new level, up from 10%, would take effect immediately. He said his decision to increase the tariff rate was the result of a “thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American” Supreme Court ruling.

On Friday the Supreme Court overturned most of Trump’s second-term tariffs, rejecting the administration’s argument that a 1977 law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, implicitly authorized the tariffs. Later that day, Trump denounced the ruling and immediately reinstated a 10% global tariff under a different authority—Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.

Section 122 allows for tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days. After that period, Trump has said those levies will be replaced with a longer-lasting tariff authority—Section 301 of the Trade Act. That provision would allow for more permanent levies, but requires monthslong investigations before tariffs can be imposed, which Trump hinted at in his Saturday post.

“During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again,” Trump posted.

The 6-3 decision issued on Friday, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, removed a diplomatic tool that Trump aggressively wielded to remake U.S. trade deals and collect tens of billions of dollars from companies importing foreign goods. It is unclear whether the U.S. will pay that money back to countries and businesses that saw prices increase. The court didn’t say refunds were necessary.

The court’s silence on the issue prompted companies to scramble to assert their rights, while a defiant Trump warned that he had no plans to retreat. On Friday, he said he was “ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country.”

Raising the global tariff from 10% to 15% would align those levies with the terms of major trade agreements that Trump completed with other nations, using Ieepa levies as leverage. Agreements with the European Union, Japan and South Korea that Trump struck in 2025 apply tariffs of 15% to most of the goods from those countries.

The White House didn’t immediately release any presidential action to increase the tariffs from Trump’s Friday order. That action exempted a number of goods from the global tariffs, including many agricultural goods, products that comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and a separate deal with Central American nations. Products that are covered by national security tariffs—such as those on steel, aluminum and automobiles—are also not affected by the new global tariffs.

Section 122 was originally devised to handle balance of payment issues in currency markets. Some scholars argue it was rendered obsolete when the U.S. abandoned the gold standard and adopted a system of floating exchange rates. It has never before been used for tariffs, but it remains unclear whether any company or organization will challenge the temporary levies. 

The Trump administration hasn’t yet outlined which countries it will target with the longer-lasting Section 301 tariffs, but the U.S. Trade Representative’s office will have to complete separate investigations for each nation. Those investigations typically take a year or more to complete.

Trump on Friday said the probes would be finished in five months—a nod to the 150-day limit on his new global tariffs. Economies that have been the subject of Section 301 probes in the past, such as the European Union or Vietnam, could also see expedited investigations because USTR could call on past evidence.

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