Trump Publishes New Global Tariff Table Upon Expiry of 1st August 2025 Deadline

As deals start to trickle down, the world is watching and a certain pattern is starting to emerge from all the wheeling and dealing. As expected, Trump tends to overpromise and underdeliver. He promised 90 deals in 90 days, but actually he only got a dozen of deals done. Nevertheless, the deals reached are perhaps among the most important and involved some of the major economies in the world, with the exception of China and India where negotiations are ongoing.

Countries which buy more from US than they sell ‘get to enjoy’ a 10% tariff. Australia and UK fall in this category. Then, comes countries which have trade surplus but good diplomatic relations with US; these are taxed at 15%. Here, we can mention the EU and Japan. Based on the table issued by the White House on 31 July 2025, the tariffs vary from 10% to 40%.

On the other hand, countries which were considered to have excellent relations with US, notably Canada and India, appear to have not been able to escape the tariff trap due to their excess balance of trade with the US. Additionally, countries which are supporting Russia might get an extra layer of tariff and both China and ndia have been warned.

The other notable aspect of the deals is an attempt for countries enjoying trade surplus with US to rebalance trade by importing more US goods such as energy, Boeing planes, or even military equipment. Another way to secure a lower tariff is to commit to larger overseas direct investment (#ODI) into the USA.

The other component that is perhaps not discussed as much as it should is the Trade in Services. If services are taken into account, certain trade deficits might not be as large as US financial institutions, hotel chains, tech giants, and even amusement parks bring in a substantial amount of revenue to the US economy and such data may not be captured by customs.

Overlaid over the trade balance equation, we have another tiered tariff scheme aimed at sectors which the US considers as strategic. For instance, steel, aluminum and copper imports are taxed at 50% as the US is trying to bring the manufacturing of these strategic commodities back in the US.

Semiconductor and batteries are some of the other sectors which the US is trying to bring back onshore and #tariffs are adjusted up accordingly. The auto industry is another strategic sector that the US wishes to protect by imposing a global 25% tariff on imported vehicles and auto spares.

Low value goods produced by labor-intensive industries such as toys & games, leather & footwear, textiles & garments are taxed at 40%.

Countries suspected to act as intermediaries to circumvent tariff barriers can be subjected to a 40% transhipment tariff. Although no country was mentioned, analysts believe the targeted country being China is not hard to guess.

The Trump administration welcomes countries who have yet to seal a deal to expedite negotiations in that respect.