The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to a request from the Trump administration to hear its appeal of lower court rulings that found many of the tariffs unlawful.
The main challenge for the global economy in 2025 can be summed up neatly in one word, “tariffs,” with President Donald Trump upending longstanding U.S.’ trading relationships when he announced in April new import duties and “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries.
Months of policy pivots and fraught negotiations followed, with some countries able to strike deals with the White House to either lower — as in the case with Switzerland — or pause and delay, as with China — a raft of higher duties on goods and commodities sent to the States.
Trade tariffs have become the weapon of choice for Washington as it seeks to — in its view — redress trade imbalances with a number of major trading partners, such as China and the European Union, that it feels have been disproportionate and unfair.
While trade deals have been agreed this year, with the U.K., EU, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia all agreeing framework accords with the U.S., work goes on behind the scenes to implement those agreements.
And all the time, there is massive uncertainty over the fate of global tariffs, with the Supreme Court set to rule on the legality of Trump’s “reciprocal” duties. Trump, for his part, has said the U.S. faces “economic disaster” if the court rules against the duties.
Of course, there are countries that have failed to win over Trump and his trade officials, including Brazil and India, which have been slapped with 50% levies. That was after Trump declared that Brazilian government policies were a threat to the U.S., while India was hit with increased levies over its Russian oil purchases.
Duties on U.S. neighbours Mexico and Canada were in play long before the reciprocal tariff announcement earlier this year. They face levies of 25% and 35%, respectively, on goods not covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade (USMCA) agreement, which itself is up for review in 2026. As things stand, the U.S. is still deliberating over whether to stick with that or create bilateral deals instead.
