July 27, 2026 — 11:59am
Donald Trump keeps trying to build his tariff wall, but each time the wall is lower and built on narrower footings.
When Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April last year, they were expected to raise somewhere between $US1.5 trillion and $US2 trillion ($2.2 trillion to $2.9 trillion) over the next decade.
Those tariffs, of course, got struck out by the US Supreme Court in February, forcing the Trump administration to come up with a replacement, which it did.
As a temporary measures, using a section of the Trade Act with a ceiling rate of 15 per cent and forced expiry after 150 days, it imposed a 10 per cent duty on all imports that would raise about $US35 billion while it constructed a permanent replacement.
