The Trump administration replaced an expiring blanket global tariff with a new two-tier set of import taxes on the country’s largest trading partners, timing the switch so the new levies took effect at the moment the old ones lapsed. According to NPR, a global 10 percent tariff the president imposed after the Supreme Court ruled against his earlier trade actions expired at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Friday, and a new set of tariffs was scheduled to begin at the same time.
The replacement tariffs come in two tiers, 10 percent and 12.5 percent, applied to goods from the 60 biggest U.S. trading partners, which NPR reports covers 59 countries plus the European Union. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a fact sheet that the action applies to the top 60 trade partners and covers 99.4 percent of U.S. imports.
The administration framed the tariffs as a response to forced labor in global supply chains rather than as a general trade measure. The USTR fact sheet stated that trading partners that committed to adopt and enforce bans on imports made with forced labor face the 10 percent rate, while those that failed to adopt such a prohibition face the 12.5 percent rate. The office also said the United States is the only country to adopt and effectively enforce a ban on imports made with forced labor.
Some categories are excluded. NPR reported that energy and many food products are exempt, and the USTR fact sheet listed additional carve-outs, including informational materials, goods already subject to separate Section 232 tariffs, and certain raw materials whose taxation could disrupt domestic supply.
A response to the Supreme Court
The new tariffs follow a February ruling against the president’s preferred legal route. As the Tax Foundation documented, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on February 20, 2026, that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize tariffs, leaving in place only tariffs imposed under other statutes. NPR reported that Trump was visibly angry after the decision and said at a White House briefing that “other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected.”
Since then, the administration has rebuilt much of the tariff regime using older trade laws that require slower, investigation-based processes. The forced-labor tariffs were the product of a months-long Section 301 investigation, and the 10 percent global tariff that expired Friday had been imposed under Section 122, a provision that allows temporary tariffs to address balance-of-payments problems.
A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters the timing was intentional and was meant “to avoid complexity” for businesses, according to NPR. The official also said the administration cares about ending forced labor.
Critics questioned the stated rationale. At a hearing where U.S. Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer testified, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, accused the administration of misrepresenting its motives, saying, as quoted by NPR, that Trump “dug up a zombie law to make things even more expensive for Americans.”
Other trade actions
NPR reported that Trump also signed proclamations imposing new 50 percent tariffs on some Canadian goods, set to begin just under a month later, and that he invoked a 1930 law that had never before been used for tariffs to do so. The administration additionally floated tariffs on pharmaceuticals that would not take effect for two years.
Kathleen Claussen, a Georgetown Law School professor who specializes in trade law, told NPR that the reliance on multiple statutes at once has produced “a far more complex landscape, I think, than it was a year ago” for importers trying to determine how the overlapping tariffs apply.
Cost and economic estimates
The Tax Foundation, which tracks the trade war, described the 2025 tariffs as the largest U.S. tax increase as a share of GDP since 1993. The group estimated that in 2025 the tariffs then in effect amounted to an average tax increase of about $1,000 per U.S. household, and that the newer Section 232 and Section 122 tariffs would raise taxes by roughly $700 per household in 2026. The group also found that the average effective tariff rate reached its highest level since 1947 in 2025.
The administration maintains the tariffs will produce long-term benefits, chiefly a revival of domestic manufacturing. Greer told senators, according to NPR, that “the problems the president’s trade policy seeks to solve are generational” and “must be fixed.” NPR reported that manufacturing employment remains below where it was when Trump took office, and that polls have shown declining public approval of the president’s handling of the economy.
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