Trump’s tariffs to rise to 15% this week, Bessent predicts duties will return to old levels in 5 months
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the Trump administration will likely raise its global tariff to 15% this week and expects broader tariffs to return within five months despite the Supreme Court ruling against earlier duties.
The United States is expected to raise its newly imposed global tariff to 15% later this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday, signalling that the Trump administration intends to rapidly rebuild its sweeping trade barriers despite a recent Supreme Court ruling striking down many of the president’s earlier tariffs.
In an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Bessent said the higher tariff rate — previously announced by President Donald Trump — would soon replace the 10% levy currently applied to imports from most countries.
“That’s likely sometime this week,” Bessent said.
The tariff adjustment represents the latest step in the Trump administration’s effort to restore its global tariff regime after the Supreme Court curtailed the president’s ability to impose duties unilaterally.
Supreme Court ruling forced White House to change legal strategy
The administration’s new tariff framework emerged after the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 on 20 February that Trump lacked legal authority to impose broad tariffs using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The decision invalidated the sweeping tariffs introduced last year under what the White House had described as an emergency economic measure.
Within hours of the ruling, Trump signed a new executive order imposing a 10% global tariff under a separate statutory authority. A day later, the president declared that the rate would rise to 15% “effective immediately.”
However, the tariff was implemented at 10%, creating confusion about when the promised higher rate would actually take effect.
Bessent’s comments on Wednesday were the first clear indication that the administration intends to implement the full 15% rate imminently.
Section 122 used to revive global tariffs
The replacement tariffs are being imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a rarely used provision that allows the United States to temporarily restrict imports for up to 150 days without congressional approval.
According to Bessent, the administration plans to use that period to develop a longer-term tariff strategy.
During the 150-day window, the Office of the US Trade Representative and the Commerce Department will conduct investigations that could provide legal grounds for additional trade restrictions.
“It’s my strong belief that the tariff rates will be back to their old rate within five months,” Bessent said.
Trump Administration signals broader tariff powers remain intact
Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling against the earlier tariffs, the Treasury Secretary argued that the administration still possesses powerful legal authorities to impose new trade barriers.
“They have survived more than 4,000 legal challenges,” Bessent said. “They are more slow moving, but they are more robust.”
Those alternative trade tools typically require formal investigations by federal agencies, making them more time-consuming but potentially more durable in court.
The White House has already maintained sector-specific tariffs on industries such as steel, aluminium and automobiles, using different statutory powers.
Officials are also expected to launch additional trade investigations, which could lead to new duties targeting specific countries or industries.
Trump seeks to rebuild global tariff regime
The new Trump global tariffs represent an attempt by the administration to reconstruct much of the trade policy architecture dismantled by the Supreme Court ruling.
Trump’s earlier tariffs — part of an expansive global trade confrontation introduced last year — had applied duties to imports from dozens of countries and were justified by the administration as necessary to protect American industry.
By invoking Section 122 and preparing additional investigations, the White House is signalling that it intends to restore those tariffs through more legally durable mechanisms, even if the process unfolds more gradually.
“It’s my strong belief that the tariff rates will be back to their old rates within five months,” Bessent said.
About the Author
Sayantani Biswas is an assistant editor at Livemint with seven years of experience covering geopolitics, foreign policy, international relations and global power dynamics. She reports on Indian and international politics, including elections worldwide, and specialises in historically grounded analysis of contemporary conflicts and state decisions. She joined Mint in 2021, after covering politics at publications including The Telegraph. <br> She holds an MPhil in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University (2019), with a specialisation in postcolonial Latin American literature. Her research examined economic nationalism through Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. She also writes on political language, cultural memory and the long shadows of conflict. <br> Biswas grew up in Durgapur, an industrial town in West Bengal shaped by migration, which drew families from across India to the Durgapur Steel Plant. As the only child in a joint family, she spent years listening—almost obsessively—to her grandparents’ testimonies of struggle, fear and loss as they fled Bangladesh during the Partition of 1947. This formative exposure to lived historical memory later converged with her training in Comparative Literature, equipping her to analyse socio-economic structures and their reverberations. <br> Outside the newsroom, she gravitates towards cultural history and critical theory, returning often to texts such as Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As a journalist, she is committed to accuracy, intellectual rigour and fairness, and believes political reporting demands not only clarity and speed, but historical depth, contextual precision, and a disciplined resistance to spectacle.
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