White House Sets New Date for Reciprocal Tariffs

Trade partners will have another three weeks to come to new agreements with the United States after the Trump administration announced an extension to its pause on reciprocal tariffs.

The administration originally implemented a 10 percent “baseline” tariff and additional country-specific “reciprocal” tariffs on April 2. A week later, the administration announced a 90-day pause for the reciprocal tariff rates to give countries time to negotiate new trade agreements with the United States, with the goal of reducing the United States’ trade deficit. That pause was set to expire on July 9; however, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on July 7 that extended the reciprocal tariff pause until Aug. 1.

As part of the extension, the White House sent letters to 14 countries informing them that they would be subject to new reciprocal tariff rates beginning Aug. 1. Those rates are as follows:

• Japan 36 percent
• Korea 25 percent
• South Africa 30 percent
• Kazakhstan 25 percent
• Laos 40 percent
• Malaysia 25 percent
• Tunisia 25 percent
• Bosnia and Herzegovina 30 percent
• Indonesia 32 percent
• Bangladesh 35 percent
• Serbia 35 percent
• Cambodia 36 percent
• Thailand 36 percent

The extension comes as some business advocacy groups are pushing back against the Trump administration’s tariff policies. On July 8, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) filed a joint brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit challenging the president’s authority to enact the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The appeals court is reviewing the case of VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump, which became a critical lawsuit in the legal question over tariffs after a lower federal court ruled in early June that the administration had overstepped its authority in using the IEEPA to issue new tariffs. In taking up the case, the appeals court stayed that ruling, allowing the tariffs to temporarily remain in place.

In the brief, the U.S. Chamber and the CTA argue that the IEEPA does not delegate any authority to the president to impose tariffs. “IEEPA’s silence as to tariffs, combined with their vast economic and political consequences — which include trillions of dollars in new taxes spread across the American economy — indicate that the president’s assertion of tariff authority is a ‘major question,’” the brief states. “This means that, for the president’s sweeping assertion of such core legislative powers to be lawful, Congress must have spoken clearly when delegating them. Because the president cannot point to any clear delegation of tariff authority in IEEPA, the IEEPA tariffs are unlawful and were properly enjoined.”