During his first three months in office, President Donald Trump has teed up and backed away from a variety of tariffs. But one that remains in place — for now — is a flat 10% tariff on almost every country in the world, a policy he had promised during his campaign.
On April 2, Trump announced a minimum 10% tariff on every nation, with some countries higher than 10%, effective April 5.
On April 9, amid plunging stock markets, Trump announced a 90-day pause in the country-by-country tariff levels, but said he would keep the 10% baseline tariffs in place. (China, Canada and Mexico were exempted from the 10% baseline tariff because they already had bilateral U.S. tariffs higher than that.)
The 10% baseline is about quadruple the tariff rate Trump inherited. When he took office, the average effective tariff rate was 2.4%.
It's unclear how long the 10% baseline tariff will be in place. At an April 10 Cabinet meeting, Trump said, "Everybody wants to come and make a deal, and we're working with a lot of different countries, and it's all going to work out very well."
For now, the worldwide baseline tariffs are in force. So we rate this Promise Kept.