U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an order introducing additional 10-percent tariffs “for all countries.” “It is a great honor for me to announce that I have just signed from the Oval Office a global tariff of 10% for all countries, which will take effect almost immediately,” he wrote on his social network Truth Social late at night on Saturday, February 21.

According to the White House, the new tariffs are being introduced for a period of 150 days and will take effect on February 24 at 06:01 Central European Time. However, for a longer period Trump would need approval from the U.S. Congress. It is reported that in making this decision Trump cited a provision of the Trade Act of 1974. However, as the dpa agency notes, experts doubt that the necessary requirements for using this legal basis to impose temporary tariffs have been met.

In addition, the White House listed numerous exemptions: the order will not affect a range of goods that are “essential to the U.S. economy.” In particular, the new tariffs do not apply to rare earth and certain other metals, specific types of agricultural products, medicines and pharmaceutical active ingredients, some types of motor vehicles, as well as books and aerospace industry products. For certain categories of goods, different customs agreements apply depending on the country.

On the eve of this announcement, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump in a dispute over his aggressive tariff policy. On February 20, the country’s highest court decided that the head of the White House had exceeded his presidential authority when, in imposing sweeping tariffs against dozens of U.S. trading partners, including EU countries, he relied on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977. Most of the tariffs introduced by Trump were declared unlawful, including the “reciprocal” duties on imports from nearly all countries of the world and the 25-percent tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China.

The Supreme Court’s ruling deprives Trump’s large-scale tariffs of a legal basis. However, the president’s team had already warned that if it lost in court, it would try to use other legal mechanisms to continue its policy. Therefore, the long-term outlook remains unclear. Donald Trump himself, at a specially convened press conference, called the Supreme Court’s decision on tariffs “deeply disappointing.” He said the justices were “a disgrace to the nation” because they had “submitted to foreign interests.”