WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has announced a fresh wave of steep import duties, targeting dozens of countries — including Pakistan with 19% reciprocal tariff, ahead of a Friday trade deal deadline.
The move is part of his wider effort to shake up global trade rules. Pakistan now joins a list of 69 nations whose goods will face new US tariffs, ranging from 10% to 41%, starting next week.
Trump said that the new tariffs are meant to fix what he sees as unfair trade imbalances and protect US economic and security interests.
Trump released an executive order listing higher import duty rates of 10% to 41% starting in seven days for 69 trading partners as the 12:01 am EDT (0401 GMT) deadline approached. Some of them had reached tariff-reducing deals, and some had no opportunity to negotiate with his administration.
The order said that goods from all other countries not listed in an annex would be subject to a 10% US tariff rate.
Trump’s order stated that some trading partners, “despite having engaged in negotiations, have offered terms that, in my judgement, do not sufficiently address imbalances in our trading relationship or have failed to align sufficiently with the United States on economic and national-security matters.”
Trump issued a separate order for Canada that raises the rate on Canadian goods subject to fentanyl-related tariffs to 35% from 25% previously, saying Canada had “failed to cooperate” in curbing fentanyl flows into the US.
The higher tariffs on Canadian goods contrasted sharply with Trump’s decision to grant Mexico a 90-day reprieve from higher tariffs of 30% on many goods to provide more time to negotiate a broader trade pact.
A US official told reporters that more trade deals were yet to be announced as Trump’s higher “reciprocal” tariff rates were set to take effect.
“We have some deals,” the official said. “And I don’t want to get ahead of the President of the United States in announcing those deals.”
Regarding the steep tariffs on goods from Canada, the second largest US trading partner after Mexico, the official said that Canadian officials “haven’t shown the same level of constructiveness that we’ve seen from the Mexican side.”
The extension for Mexico avoids a 30% tariff on most Mexican non-automotive and non-metal goods compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade and came after a Thursday morning call between Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
“We avoided the tariff increase announced for tomorrow,” Sheinbaum wrote in an X social media post, adding that the Trump call was “very good.”
Approximately 85% of US imports from Mexico comply with the rules of origin outlined in the USMCA, shielding them from 25% tariffs related to fentanyl, according to Mexico’s economy ministry.
Trump said the US would continue to levy a 50% tariff on Mexican steel, aluminium and copper, and a 25% tariff on Mexican autos and on non-USMCA-compliant goods subject to tariffs related to the US fentanyl crisis.
“Additionally, Mexico has agreed to immediately terminate its Non Tariff Trade Barriers, of which there were many,” Trump said in a Truth Social post without providing details.
