Trump issues order imposing new global tariff rates effective Aug. 7

US President Donald Trump signed executive orders on Thursday evening to impose tariffs of between 15 and 41 percent on goods shipped to the U.S. from more than 67 countries, ratcheting up tariffs to the highest levels in more than a century, Politico reports.

The new duties, however, won’t go into effect until Aug. 7 — giving countries yet another window to try to negotiate them down, according to Politico.

“This is historic, this is a new system of trade,” Politico quoted a senior administration official, granted anonymity as part of the terms of a call, as saying. “It’s what I would call the Trump round of negotiations.”

According to the text of the first order, the Trump administration is maintaining its 10 percent so-called baseline tariff on countries where the U.S. has a trade surplus — i.e. it sells more American products to those countries than it imports from them, according to Politico.

And it officially imposes the 15 percent rate that Trump agreed to set as part of negotiations with leading trading partners like the European Union, Japan and South Korea. The Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia also reached tentative agreements with the administration that set their duties at 19-20 percent.

Other countries, mainly smaller economies, face far higher rates, topping out at 41 percent for Syria, which is emerging from a civil war, and 40 percent for Myanmar, which is still in the midst of one. The Southeast Asian nation of Laos also faces a 40 percent tariff, and Iraq will be hit with a 35 percent duty.

Trump also signed a second order raising tariffs on Canada, one of the country’s biggest trading partners, from 25 to 35 percent for goods that are not compliant with an existing North American trade deal known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Higher tariffs on Canada take effect Friday, according to Politico.

The executive actions suggests that Trump decided to punish countries that he did not believe offered enough concessions since the president first threatened to impose his “reciprocal” tariffs on April 2, according to Politico.

White House officials said Thursday night that they expect to strike additional agreements with countries ahead of the new Aug. 7 implementation date for the tariffs.