Bessent says Trump’s tariff hike to 15% likely coming this week

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that President Donald Trump’s plan to increase a 10% universal tariff up to 15% will likely be done this week.

“That’s likely sometime this week,” Bessent said on CNBC in response to a question about when the increase to 15% would be implemented.

Trump last month put a 10% universal levy in place after the Supreme Court invalidated most of his previous tariff regime. Bessent noted the authority for the new duties only allows for the measure to last 150 days. During that time, he said that US trade authorities will be looking at using other legislation to resurrect the tariff regime that had been in place prior to the high court’s ruling.

“It’s my strong belief that the tariff rates will back to their old rate within five months,” Bessent said. “They are very slow moving, but they are more robust,” he said of the so-called sections 301 and 232 tariffs that are planned to replace the invalidated IEEPA duties.

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