US customs officials began levying President Donald Trump's unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday, with higher levies on goods from 57 major trading partners set to begin next week.
Initial "base" tariffs of 10 percent went into effect at U.S. ports, airports and bonded warehouses at 00:01 a.m. Eastern Time, marking Trump's complete rejection of the system of reciprocal tariff rates agreed upon after World War II.
"This is the single largest trade action of our lifetime," said Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade lawyer at the law firm Hogan Lovells and a former White House trade adviser during Trump's first term.
Shaw said at a Brookings think tank panel on Thursday that she expects tariffs to change over time as countries seek to negotiate lower rates.
"But this is huge. This is a pretty seismic and significant shift in how we trade with every country in the world," she added.
Howmet Aerospace, a company that supplies aircraft parts to Airbus and Boeing, could halt some deliveries due to tariffs imposed a few days ago by US President Donald Trump, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The Pittsburgh-based company informed its customers that it had declared a so-called "force majeure event." This is a legal practice that allows contracting parties to avoid their obligations if they are caught by unavoidable and unforeseeable external circumstances.
Howmet will be exempt from shipping any products or services affected by the national emergency and/or the executive order on tariffs, the letter said.
Much higher tariffs against what Trump called the "worst offenders," such as a 20 percent rate for the EU and 34 percent for China, will take effect on April 9.
A 25 percent tariff on all foreign cars imported into the United States went into effect on Thursday.
Trump's tariff announcement on Wednesday rocked global stock markets to their core. Oil and commodity prices plunged, while investors rushed to seek safety in government bonds.
Among the countries first hit by the 10 percent tariff are Australia, Britain, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
At the same time on Wednesday, Trump's multiple "reciprocal" tariffs of 11 to 50 percent are set to take effect. Imports into the European Union will be hit with 20 percent tariffs, while Chinese goods will be hit with 34 percent tariffs, bringing Trump's total new levies on China to 54 percent.
Vietnam, which benefited from the shift of US supply chains away from China after Trump's trade war with Beijing during his first term, will be hit with a 46 percent tariff and agreed on Friday to discuss a deal with Trump.
Canada and Mexico are exempt from Trump's latest tariffs because they are still subject to a 25 percent tariff on goods that do not comply with the rules of origin between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
The US president excluded goods such as steel and aluminum, cars, trucks and auto parts because they are subject to special national security tariffs of 25 percent.
His administration also released a list of more than 1.000 categories of products exempt from tariffs. These include imports of crude oil, petroleum products and other energy products, pharmaceuticals, uranium, titanium, lumber and copper semiconductors, worth an estimated $645 billion in imports by 2024.
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