United States: import tax avalanche

Since his inauguration in January, the President of the United States has continued to increase the number of announcements and decrees to introduce a series of tariffs targeting several of his major trading partners.

To5 March 2025, here is the range of customs duties deployed on goods imported on US soil,subject to change, the current state of affairs is extremely fluctuating:

• Chinese products:since 4 March 2025, in addition to customs duties, a20 % additional surchargeagainst the surtax already in effect before February 4, 2025, is applied to products manufactured in China. On February 4, a 10% surcharge on Chinese products was introduced. This increases to 20%.

  Beijing immediately responded by applying additional customs duties of10-15 %on certain U.S. agri-food products including chicken, wheat, corn, sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, seafood, fruit, vegetables and dairy products. The new fees came into force on 10 March 2025.

• Mexican and Canadian Products:Fees Of all products manufactured in Mexico and Canada, 25% were introduced, with an exception for Canadian hydrocarbons taxed at only 10%. Recall that the decrees imposing these taxes from 4 February 2025 had been suspended and are therefore in force again.

  In response to this trade offensive, Canada has decided to impose 25% tariffs on $155 billion in U.S. goods since March 4, 2025. Mexico announced tariff and non-tariff measures in retaliation.

Other future measures...

• Customs duties on steel and aluminium :On February 10th, President Trump announced the introduction of customs duties on25% on all imports of steel and aluminiumUnited States, without exception or exemption, from12 March 2025.
• Forecasts for the European Union (EU)For several weeks, European products have also been on the saddle, with the threat of customs duties at import prices.25 %. Possibly from the beginning of April, but the information has not yet been officially activated at the time we write these lines. The European Union is preparing to retaliate.
• Agricultural products:Recent statements also suggested that certain agricultural products could be taxed as of 2 April.
• Wood Survey:An investigation into imports of timber, timber and timber products was also ordered by order of the US President for potential tariffs. A measure that could greatly impact countries such as Canada, Brazil and Germany.

Other measures could be introduced. These recent developments are evidence of the increased willingness of the United States to protect its domestic industries, but are likely to provoke reprisals from its trading partners, thus increasing the risk of a large-scale trade war.

Whitehouse | ACTE International Network