Posted on 04 Aug 2025
President Donald Trump has punctuated Friday’s tariff-negotiations deadline by formalising the duty rates for scores of trading partners, Kallanish reports.
Talking a particularly severe hit is Canada, whose exports to the US are now assigned a tariff rate as high as 35%. Amongst US trading partners seeing a reduction in the prior duty rates Trump had proposed are India, down slightly to 25%, and Taiwan and Vietnam, both now at 20%. The levies on Indonesia and Thailand are eased to 19%. Japan and South Korea have a downward revision to 15%
South Africa’s tariff is unchanged at 30%. Philippines faces a slight increase to 19%. Trump’s 10% global blanket tariff remains.
This round of Trump measures, originally characterised as “reciprocal” tariffs (see Kallanish 4 April) to offset various import curbs imposed by the trading partner but later widely recognised as based mostly on the US trade deficit with the country, go into effect on Thursday.
Trump has used additional excuses to boost the tariff rates on particular targets. In the case of the Canada and Mexico, fentanyl trafficking remains a rationale. The White House formally accuses South Africa of persecuting white people. The president says he is punishing Brazil for allegedly pursuing an improper criminal case against Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro. India is in the crosshairs for doing too much business with Russia.
Canada’s potential recognition of a Palestinian state is a new factor in the strained trade talks with his northern next-door neighbor, according to Trump.
The legal basis for imposing these tariffs without congressional approval is the allowance of executive action in various national emergencies. Because of the above excuses, US courts are reviewing the legality of Trump’s unilateral measures. Two federal courts already have signaled cancellation of levies that do not directly address the stated “emergency.” The Supreme Court ultimately may decide the matter.
Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney said he is “disappointed” at Canada’s 35% rate, which represents an increase from 25%. Carney laments that Trump again is citing fentanyl as a reason for the higher percentage. Less than 1% of fentanyl arriving in the US enters from Canada, Carney says, emphasising too the resources Ottawa devoted to addressing Trump’s stated concerns.
“Canada’s government is making historic investments in border security to arrest drug traffickers, take down international gangs and end migrant smuggling,” Carney states. “These include thousands of new law enforcement and border security officers, aerial surveillance, intelligence and security operations, and the strongest border legislation in our history.”
Not all Canadian exports are subject to the 35% level. Manufactured goods in compliance with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement are mostly not impacted. The trilateral trade pact expires next year.
Mexico is not amongst the more than 90 countries directly affected by Trump’s orders on Friday. Earlier in the week, he had agreed to extend Mexico’s negotiation deadline for another 90 days (see Kallanish 1 August). The UK. EU, Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam already had separate agreements in place to some extent (see Kallanish passim). Sensitive talks with export giant China are ongoing.
Source:Kallanish
