Trump’s 10 Percent Universal Tariffs Take Effect

The baseline tariffs will impact about $3 trillion in imported goods.

Containers are seen at the Port of Keelung in Keelung, Taiwan, on April 4, 2025. Annabelle Chih/Getty Images

The first part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff agenda went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on April 5.

A 10 percent baseline universal tariff will apply to all imports, regardless of origin, up from the current average tariff rate of about 2.5 percent.

The White House’s measures will impact the $3 trillion in goods the United States imports annually.

Trump unveiled the details of his tariff plans during a “Make America Wealthy Again” event at the White House Rose Garden on April 2, vowing to undo decades of trade deficits and unfair practices in global commerce.

“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” the president said in his speech before an audience of auto workers, craftsmen, farmers, steelworkers, and members of his Cabinet.

“They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream.”

He invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, authorizing the president to impose trade restrictions on foreign countries. The legislation, which Senate Democrats have tried to reverse in a largely symbolic vote this week, has mainly been used to implement tariffs.

The second set of trade policy actions consists of beefier reciprocal tariffs on countries with which the United States has persistent trade deficits and maintaining more restrictive monetary and non-monetary trade barriers. These import duties will be as high as 50 percent, applying to an array of countries, including Vietnam (46 percent), China (34 percent), Taiwan (32 percent), India (26 percent), and Japan (24 percent).

“Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years, but it is not going to happen anymore,” Trump said.

Certain goods, such as automobiles, aluminum, and steel, will be exempt from the new tariffs because they are already subject to Section 232 tariffs.

Beijing confirmed it would be imposing retaliatory 34 percent tariffs on U.S. goods entering the world’s second-largest economy, effective April 10.

In response to China’s tariffs, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Chinese regime “panicked” and did “the one thing they cannot afford to do.”

Others, including the European Union and Canada, have also vowed to install countermeasures.

Two countries were notably absent from both lists: Canada and Mexico. The North American neighbors will still face the previous 25 percent tariff regime, which stems from threats surrounding illicit drugs and illegal immigration.

According to The Tax Foundation, the average tariff rate on all imports could rise to 16.5 percent, the highest average percentage since 1937. Goldman Sachs economists estimated it would be 18.3 percent, slightly higher than initially projected.

“Negotiations with trading partners will lead to somewhat lower ’reciprocal' rates than announced this week,” Goldman economists wrote in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.

“However, the prospect for escalation following retaliatory tariffs and a high probability of further sectoral tariffs suggest the U.S. effective tariff rate could rise more than the 15 percentage points our economists had previously expected.”

President Trump holds a chart as he delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden titled Make America Wealthy Again, on April 2, 2025. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

While the president followed through on the “big one”—a reference to when he first teased reciprocal tariffs in February—the White House has signaled that more levies are coming. Senior administration officials say Trump is poised to introduce tariffs targeting lumber, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors.

U.N. Trade and Development (UNCTAD) officials recently said U.S. tariffs would hurt the most vulnerable and the poor.

“Trade must not become another source of instability. It should serve development and global growth,” said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan, adding that today’s climate requires cooperation “not escalation.”

Wall Street on Edge

Since the president’s tariff announcement, the financial markets have been turbulent, with one index slipping into a bear market.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 2,200 points to close the raucous trading week. The broader S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index were down nearly 6 percent to finish the April 4 session. The Russell 2000, an index made up of small-cap stocks, dipped more than 4 percent and entered a bear market—a Wall Street term defined as a 20 percent decline from recent highs.

U.S. Treasury yields also shrank as investors sought shelter in the conventional safe-haven asset. The benchmark 10-year yield declined to 4 percent, the lowest since October.

Matt Burdett, head of equities at Thornburg Investment Management, told The Epoch Times that the new tariffs sharply impact “sectors and companies heavily reliant on international trade and complex supply chains.”

Burdett said this is likely the beginning of broader negotiations instead of “a definitive policy endpoint.”

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on April 3, Trump stated that the tariffs have put the United States in the driver’s seat.

“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. Every country has called us,” Trump said.

“If somebody said that we’re going to give you something that’s so phenomenal, as long as they’re giving us something that’s good.”

According to the president, he has already spoken with To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Trump, writing on Truth Social, said that the Vietnamese government wants to slash its tariffs on U.S. goods to zero if they can reach an agreement with the United States.

Trump stated that Corporate America is unconcerned about tariffs.

“Big business is not worried about the tariffs, because they know they are here to stay, but they are focused on the big, beautiful deal, which will supercharge our economy. Very important. Going on right now!” he said in an April 4 Truth Social post.