Washington: US President Donald Trump has pledged to retaliate against countries that “play games” with his new tariff regime as he faces a backlash from Europe hours ahead of 15 per cent worldwide tariff taking effect.
The European Union said it was pausing ratification of its trade deal with the US while it sought clarity on what the Trump administration intended to do after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s network of “reciprocal” tariffs last week.
The Australian government is also making “appropriate representations” to its US counterparts, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, with exports to the US facing a potential tariff increase from 10 to 15 per cent under the new, temporary system Trump announced over the weekend.
Trump continued to rage against the Supreme Court in a series of social media posts on Monday (Washington time), belittling the nation’s highest court by spelling its name in lower case letters to indicate his “complete lack of respect”.
“Our incompetent supreme court did a great job for the wrong people, and for that they should be ashamed of themselves,” he wrote.
Trump predicted the court would rule “in favour of China” when it considers the legality of his executive order that attempts to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the US to parents without legal status or who are in the country temporarily.
“Let our supreme court keep making decisions that are so bad and deleterious to the future of our Nation – I have a job to do,” he wrote.
The president asserted the court had confirmed the legality of all other tariffs other than the ones he enacted using emergency powers, where it was found he exceeded his authority.
He also claimed there was no need for him to get congressional approval of other tariffs. “It has already been gotten, in many forms, a long time ago! They were also just reaffirmed by the ridiculous and poorly crafted supreme court decision!”
The new worldwide tariff is enacted by the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose temporary tariffs of up to 15 per cent for 150 days to deal with urgent balance-of-payments shortfalls.
Trump’s proclamation says the rate will be 10 per cent, but he later announced on social media that it would go up to 15 per cent. The text is yet to be altered, and the tariffs are due to begin Tuesday (Washington time).
In Europe, where the European Union had struck a trade deal that set the US tariff at 15 per cent, officials said they would pause ratification of the arrangement until the US clarified what it intended to do.
“At this point in time, we do not have that, and it’s not up to us to provide it. A deal is a deal,” said European Commission spokesman Olof Gill. “We are simply saying to the US: it’s up to you to clearly show to us what path you are taking to honour the agreement.”
Analysis by the Switzerland-based Global Trade Alert found that at a blanket 15 per cent rate, the EU would face a trade-weighted average tariff that was 0.77 percentage points higher than before the Supreme Court ruling. The trade-weighted average tariff on Australian exports would be 1.84 percentage points higher.
The biggest beneficiaries were Brazil, China and India, whose average tariffs would be significantly lower than before the court ruling, the analysis found.
In a Truth Social post, Trump warned: “Any Country that wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ‘Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to. BUYER BEWARE!!!”
The White House has not responded to inquiries about exemptions for Australia or other countries with which the US already enjoys a trade surplus.
Albanese said the government would continue to make its case against tariffs on Australian goods. “We repeat our view that these tariffs are unfair. We support free and fair trade … including for our agricultural products.”
Justin Wolfers, an Australian economics professor at the University of Michigan, said it was plausible Australia could receive a positive carve-out under the law because of the trade balance being in the US’s favour.
The main advantage conferred to Australia under Trump’s old tariff regime was that Australian goods had a lower rate than many competitors, an edge that would now be lost.
But the new regime was “a big boost to one of our trading partners, that being China”, Wolfers said, which could be economically advantageous for Australia.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.