• Trump terms SC’s verdict “anti-American decision”.
• US president says raising tariffs “effective immediately”.
• Says many nations have been “ripping” US off for decades.
  

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Saturday he will raise a temporary tariff from 10% to 15% on US imports from all countries, the maximum level allowed under the law, after the US Supreme Court struck down his previous tariff programme.

Trump had immediately announced a 10% across-the-board tariff on Friday after the court’s decision, which found the president had exceeded his authority when he imposed an array of higher rates under an economic emergency law.

The new levies are grounded in a separate but untested law, known as Section 122, that allows tariffs up to 15% but requires congressional approval to extend them after 150 days. No president has previously invoked Section 122, and its use could lead to further legal challenges.

Trade experts and congressional aides are skeptical the Republican-majority Congress would extend the tariffs, given polls that show growing numbers of Americans blame the duties for higher prices.

Trump eyes other ways to impose tariffs

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said he would use the 150-day period to work on issuing other “legally permissible” tariffs. The administration intends to rely on two other statutes that permit import taxes on specific products or countries based on investigations into national security or unfair trade practices.

“I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the US off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.

The Section 122 tariffs include exemptions for certain products, including critical minerals, metals and energy products, according to the White House.

Wendy Cutler, a former senior US trade official and senior vice president at the Asia Society think tank, said she was surprised Trump had not gone for the maximum Section 122 rate on Friday, but that his rapid-fire change underscored the uncertainty trading partners faced.

Trump, who often describes tariffs as his favorite word, has attacked individual justices in personal terms and insisted he retained the power to impose tariffs as he sees fit.

Trade deals must be honored: Greer

Trump has used the tariffs, or the threat of imposing them, to extract trade deals from foreign countries.

After the court’s decision, Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, told Fox News on Friday that those countries must honor agreements even if they call for higher rates than the Section 122 tariffs.

Exports to the US from countries such as Malaysia and Cambodia would continue to be taxed at their negotiated rates of 19%, even though the universal rate is lower, Greer said.

The ruling could spell good news for countries like Brazil, which has not negotiated a deal with Washington to lower its 40% tariff rate but could now see its tariff rate drop to 15%, at least temporarily.

Trump’s approval rating on his handling of the economy has steadily declined during his year in office, with 34% of respondents saying they approve and 57% saying they disapprove in a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday.

• World powers creating problems for Iran: Pezeshkian.
• His comments come after Feb 17 indirect talks in Geneva.
• Washington orders two aircraft carriers to Middle East.
  

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday said that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.

“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.

The Iranian president’s remarks come as President Donald Trump pushed the US to the brink of war with Tehran despite aides urging him to focus more on voters’ economic worries.

The US wants Iran to give up its nuclear programme, and Iran has refused and denied that it is trying to develop an atomic weapon.

Trump had suggested on Thursday that “bad things” would happen if Tehran did not strike a deal within 10 days, which he subsequently extended to 15.

Asked by a reporter on Friday whether he was contemplating a limited military strike, Trump answered: “The most I can say — I am considering it.”

Trump has ordered a huge buildup of forces in the Middle East and preparations for a potential multi-week air attack on Iran.

Washington has ordered two aircraft carriers to the region as it piles on pressure. The first — the USS Abraham Lincoln, with nearly 80 aircraft — was positioned about 700 kilometres (435 miles) from the Iranian coast, satellite images showed on February 18.

Its location puts at least a dozen US F‑35s and F‑18 fighter jets within striking distance. A second carrier, USS Gerald R Ford, was also dispatched to the Middle East.

Iran and the US renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme and avert a new military confrontation.

The two nations held indirect talks in Geneva on February 17, with little clear indication of compromise by any party.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner took part in the negotiations, mediated by Oman, alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

After the talks in Geneva, Tehran said the two sides had agreed to submit drafts of a potential agreement, which Araghchi told US media would be the “next step”.

“I believe that in the next two, three days, that would be ready, and after final confirmation by my superiors, that would be handed over to Steve Witkoff,” he said, referring to Trump’s main Middle East negotiator.

• Minister says Paris in talks with EU counterparts over US tariffs.
• EU could respond to US tariffs with anti-coercion instrument: report.
• ACI could exclude US companies from EU procurement contracts.
  

Brussels has the tools to hit back at the United States for its latest round of tariffs, France’s trade minister Nicolas Forissier told the Financial Times on Saturday.

Paris was in talks with EU counterparts and the European Commission over US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a flat global tariff of 10% after the US Supreme Court ruled that many of the existing tariffs he had levied on trading partners were illegal, Forissier said.

“Should it become necessary, the EU has the appropriate instruments at its disposal,” Forissier told the FT.

The EU response could include options such as the “trade bazooka”, an anti-coercion instrument (ACI) that could affect US technology companies, the newspaper said, citing French officials.

The ACI has a broad range of powers from export controls to tariffs on services, as well as excluding US companies from EU procurement contracts, it said.

There is also a suspended package of retaliatory tariffs on more than $106 billion of US goods that could be deployed, the report added.