Good morning. Here’s what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
Global tariffs: Donald Trump raised his new global tariff to 15% on Saturday after deciding the 10% rate he announced one day earlier was not enough. The jump came after a Saturday social media post in which Trump said he had conducted a “thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American” Supreme Court ruling that on Friday stripped him of the emergency powers underpinning his global tariff regime. The court’s landmark 6-3 decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Trump’s own appointees Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, found that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not authorise the president to impose tariffs. Three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh — dissented. The new 15% tariff operates under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which caps tariffs at 15% for 150 days without congressional approval. To replace it with something more permanent, Trump ordered new Section 301 investigations into unfair trade practices on an accelerated timeline. Existing Section 232 duties on steel, aluminium and cars remain in place, and separate Section 232 investigations into pharmaceuticals and semiconductors are also ongoing. The Budget Lab at Yale estimated the new rate brings the US effective tariff rate to 13.7%, down from 16% before the ruling. (Bloomberg)(FT)(WSJ)(Reuters)
2.
In Australia: Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell, who travels to the US on Tuesday for the G’Day USA trade mission in Los Angeles to meet senior American officials said Australia had “consistently advocated against these unjustified tariffs” and was “working closely with our embassy in Washington to assess the implications and examine all options.” The 15% rate is a 5 percentage point increase on the 10% Australia had previously faced. Shadow defence minister James Paterson told Sky News the move was “contrary to our free trade agreement and the spirit of our friendship between our two nations” and called on the Albanese government to secure an exemption through its incoming Washington ambassador Greg Moriarty. Meanwhile, the EU called an emergency parliamentary meeting for Monday to reassess its trade deal with Washington. On Sunday, US trade representative Jamieson Greer said deals struck with partners including China, the EU, Japan and South Korea would remain in place despite the Supreme Court ruling, telling CBS’s Face the Nation the administration would honour the agreements and expected its partners to do the same. Greer also said he did not anticipate the ruling to undermine upcoming talks between Trump and Xi Jinping. (Bloomberg)(FT)(AFR)(The Guardian)(SMH)
