Bessent says global 15% tariff starts this week, predicts Trump duties will return to old levels later this year

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Treasury Sec. Bessent: Global 15% tariff starts this week, move back to prior rates within 5 months

Squawk Box

President Donald Trump’s recently announced 15% global tariff will be implemented sometime this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.

Bessent also predicted that U.S. tariff rates would, by August, effectively return to where they stood before the Supreme Court struck down the often-steeper duties that Trump unilaterally imposed on most of the world’s countries last year.

“It’s my strong belief that the tariff rates will be back to their old rate within five months,” Bessent said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

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Watch CNBC’s full interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

Squawk Box

Hours after the court invalidated Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, the president said he had signed an executive order to impose a global 10% duty under a different law.

A day later, Trump said he would hike that new tariff rate to 15%, “effective immediately.”

Bessent in Wednesday’s interview noted that those replacement tariffs, which are being invoked under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, can last for only 150 days unless Congress approves an extension.

During that 150-day interval, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department will complete trade-related studies that can allow them to impose more tariffs, Bessent said.

“It’s my strong belief that the tariff rates will be back to their old rate within five months, and those are very fulsome authorities that provide they have survived more than 4000 legal challenges,” he said.

“They are more slow moving, but they are more robust.”

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