U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick speaks during a press briefing at the White House, following the Supreme Court's ruling that Trump had exceeded his authority when he imposed tariffs, in Washington D.C. on Feb. 20. Reuters-Yonhap

WASHINGTON — The United States began collecting a temporary new 10 percent global import tariff on Tuesday, but the Trump administration was working to increase it to 15 percent, a White House official said, sowing confusion over President Donald Trump's tariff policies after last week's Supreme Court defeat.

Trump initially signed an order on Friday for a 10 percent tariff to last 150 days to replace broad duties under an emergency law that were struck down by the Supreme Court, but on Saturday, he said he would increase the rate to 15 percent. On Monday night, before the midnight start of collections, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency notified shippers that the rate would be 10 percent.

The White House official told Reuters that Trump has had "no change of heart" in his desire for a 15 percent tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, but offered no details on the timing for that increase.

As of Monday, Trump had not signed a formal presidential order for the increase to 15 percent and CBP can only act on published presidential executive orders and proclamations.

CBP's notice referred to his Friday order, saying that aside from products covered by exemptions, imports would "be subject to an additional ad valorem rate of 10 percent."

Unclear why lower rate is imposed

The move added to confusion surrounding U.S. trade policy, with no explanation offered in the notice for why the lower rate had been used.

"Trump is delivering the State of the Union address tonight, so it's possible we might get a better sense of the next steps on tariffs," Deutsche Bank said in a note.

"Net-net we still think the effective tariff rate will fall this year and that the world post-SCOTUS will see lower tariffs than the pre-SCOTUS world," its analysts said, using the acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States.

Source: Korea Times News