The Trump administration’s new tariff plan is a legal patch job: 10% today, maybe 15% this week, and a mad dash to rebuild duties before a July cutoff
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Washington is trying to do trade policy with a stopwatch and a spare wrench. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s new temporary global import tariff is headed to 15% from 10% — and that the order could arrive quickly.
“That's likely sometime this week,” he said. That’s a bit like the Washington equivalent of pointing at a wobbling Jenga tower and saying: Don’t worry, we meant for it to move like that. Because while the White House is pitching momentum, businesses are stuck reading a system that’s still being bolted back together.
The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s earlier “Liberation Day” global tariffs that he imposed under a national-emergencies law, forcing the administration to swap legal engines mid-drive. The replacement? Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act — a rarely used tool that lets the president slap a temporary import surcharge on basically everything, but only up to (an already shaky) 15% and only for 150 days unless Congress extends it.
It’s essentially a balance-of-payments authority that allows a temporary surcharge while Washington tries to find a way to rebuild a longer-lasting tariff program on sturdier statutory ground. But up to this point, the tariffs haven’t been either popular or done what the president has claimed.
The White House proclamation sets the 10% surcharge on “all articles imported into the United States” (with some exemptions) and puts it on the calendar with customs-grade precision: It applies to goods entered on or after 12:01 a.m. ET on Feb. 24, 2026, and runs through 12:01 a.m. ET on July 24, 2026, unless it’s changed earlier or extended by Congress.
When Bessent says tariff rates are going “back to where they were” — and fast — he’s really describing a weird version of a relay. Section 122 is the sprinter. The marathoners are Sections 301 and 232 — the slower, more procedural, harder-to-unwind, investigation-driven routes that have held up better in court and can produce more durable tariffs once the 150-day bridge runs out. “During the 150 days, we will see studies from USTR on Section 301, tariffs from Commerce on Section 232,” he said.
There’s also a practical reason this has to be more than cable-news posture: Customs can only collect what is actually published in formal executive orders and proclamations, and the White House still hasn’t provided a firm timetable for the 15% increase. The tariffs can only exist when the paperwork for them does.
The Trump administration is racing to replace the temporary tariffs before late July — with or without guardrails. Meanwhile, separate sector tariffs on steel, aluminum, and autos continue under other legal provisions, so the broader tariff stack never really left the building.
The Trump administration is betting that the tariff rebuild can happen within five months, fast enough to keep the Trump tariff posture intact while moving it onto authorities that courts have historically treated as more durable. If that works, a temporary bridge might lead to a permanent address. Whether Congress extends anything — or whether the pivot invites fresh legal fights — is the part nobody can tariff away.
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