US trade war: Trump raises global tariffs to 15% from 10%

Donald Trump insists the new move to lift tariffs from 10% to 15% is "legally sound." DW asked ING Germany's Carsten Brzeski what's at stake for US businesses — and for European exporters.

Donald Trump said he would raise an across-the-board tariff to 15% from 10%, which he announced earlier on Friday. The change came less than 24 hours after a Supreme Court ruling struck down much of his earlier tariff plan.

The US Supreme Court ruling and Trump's reaction to it have prompted doubts on the validity of the 2025 US trade deal with the European Union, said Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING Germany.

Brzeski told DW that Trump's administration "has clearly been now damaged and weakened."

"I think that, in the end, Europe will probably try to play hardball now," he said. "So I assume that the Europeans will want to go either for a renegotiation or will try to lower their commitments in the deal."

The new import taxes issued by the US raise awkward questions regarding the trade framework agreed by Washington and Brussels last summer.

US President Donald Trump imposed heavy tariffs on multiple nations shortly after taking office in January 2025. In July that year, Trump threatened to impose a 30% trade penalty on EU goods — a drastic jump from 2.5% under his predecessor Joe Biden.

EU nations responded by scrambling for a trade deal with the Trump administration, eventually accepting tariffs of 15% on most of its exports to the US. The deal would also require the EU to buy $750 billion (€636.5 billion) of US liquified natural gas, oil, and nuclear energy products through 2028.

The terms, however, were controversial among EU lawmakers, and the recent Greenland crisis also prompted EU officials to briefly put them on hold.

Now that the Greenland row has eased, the process was set to move forward, and the European Parliament's trade committee was due to approve the deal on Tuesday.

On Saturday, however, the committee's chief Bernd Lange said the proposed deal lacked a legal basis, and floated the idea of the US government having to repay tariffs collected since Trump's return.

"Legal barriers have been set, the era of unlimited, arbitrary tariffs impossible by the President might now be coming to an end," Lange wrote on social media.

China has overtaken the US to become Germany's biggest trading partner, according to the latest official data.

Bilateral trade between China and Germany was €251.8 billion ($296.6 billion) in 2025, compared with €240.5 billion with the US.

In a report published on Friday, Germany's Federal Statistics Office noted a 5% drop in US trade compared to 2024, when the US held the dominant position.

Germany, the EU's largest economy and exporter, was forced to navigate multiple trade obstacles imposed by the Trump administration at various points in 2025.

Read our full story here.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he would present Donald Trump with a "very clear European position" during his visit to the US in early March.

Speaking to state broadcaster ARD, Merz said EU member states will coordinate with each other in the coming days to formulate a unified policy.

"Tariffs are a matter for the European Union, not the individual member states," said the German leader.

The wealthy European bloc, comprised mostly of US allies, has suffered numerous trade shocks since Trump's return to office in early 2025.

On Saturday, chairman of the European Parliament's trade committee Bernd Lange said there was a realistic chance for the US trade penalties to be repaid.

Lange, a German politician, was commenting on the Supreme Court decision that struck down many of Trump's tariffs. 

Speaking to public radio "Deutschlandfunk," Lange estimated that German exporters and their US partners may have overpaid by over €100 billion ($118 billion).

The EU official also said he was set to convene a special meeting of European Parliament's negotiators and legal advisers for Monday, saying that the US-EU trade deal the bloc was trying to implement now lacked legal ground.

Donald Trump raised a global tariff to 15% in response to the Supreme Court's ruling announced on Friday.

On Friday, Supreme Court justices, divided 6-3, said that many of Trump's tariffs were impermissible.

The court said the president did not have the authority to introduce the tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which the administration used as the legal ground to impose most of his tariffs on countries around the world.

Read our full story here.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told German public broadcaster ARD that he will be traveling to Washington with a "coordinated European position."

His comments came before US President Donald Trump raised global tariffs to 15% on Saturday.

The German chancellor was speaking with German media outlets after a CDU party conference in Stuttgartcame to a close.

He told German broadcaster RTL that "constant uncertainty" on tariffs was "the biggest poison for the economies in Europe and the US."

"This uncertainty needs to end," he told the private television network. "And I will make an effort to do so."

In a post published on his Truth Social network, US President Donald Trump said the Supreme Court's decision to strike down tariffs was "ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American."

He said his decision to raise new tariffs from 10% to 15% was "fully allowed, and legally tested."

"During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again — GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!" he added.

Trump introduced his controversial import charges under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). In their Friday decision, however, the justices at the top US court stated that the law "does not authorize the president to impose tariffs" and that this power was reserved for lawmakers.

The US president quickly responded by announcing a 10% global tariff under a different law.

Trump invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 as the legal basis for his decision. The new taxes can be imposed for 150 days before the duties require approval from US Congress.

After the Supreme Court struck down most of President Donald Trump's controversial trade tariffs as unconstitutional, he announced new levies of 15% worldwide.

The move would be "effective ‌immediately,"  Trump said in a social media post.

Trump also said many of the countries affected had been "ripping" the US off for decades "without retribution (until ⁠I came ​along!)" without providing details.

The financial fallout of his decision and the effects on it for US trading partners were not immediately clear.

Hello from the DW newsroom.

In this live blog, we are following updates on the Trump administration's trade tariffs.

On Saturday, the US president announced a "worldwide tariff" of 15%, raising it from the previously announced 10% levy.

It comes after the US Supreme Court ruled Friday that the US president exceeded his authority by implementing his tariff agenda using a law reserved for a national emergency.