US collects new 10% tariff, smashing trade norms

Countries first hit with tariff are Australia, Britain, Argentina, Egypt and Saudi Arabia

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WASHINGTON:

US customs agents began collecting President Donald Trump's unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday, with higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners due to start next week.

The initial 10% "baseline" tariff to be paid by US importers took effect at US seaports, airports and customs warehouses, ushering in Trump's full rejection of the post-World War Two system of mutually agreed tariff rates.

"This is the single biggest trade action of our lifetime," said Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade lawyer at Hogan Lovells and former White House trade adviser during Trump's first term.

Trump's Wednesday tariff announcement shook global stock markets, wiping out $5 trillion in stock market value for S&P 500 companies by Friday's close, a record two-day decline. Prices for oil and commodities plunged, while investors fled to the safety of government bonds.

Among the countries first hit with the 10% tariff are Australia, Britain, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A US Customs and Border Protection bulletin to shippers indicates no grace period for cargoes on the water at midnight on Saturday. But the bulletin did provide a 51-day grace period for cargoes loaded onto vessels or planes and in transit to the US by Saturday, arriving before May 27.

On Wednesday, Trump's higher "reciprocal" tariff rates of 11% to 50% are due to take effect. European Union imports will be hit with a 20% tariff, while Chinese goods will be hit with a 34% tariff, bringing Trump's total new levies on China to 54%.

Beijing on Saturday said "the market has spoken" in rejecting Trump's tariffs after it hit Washington with a slew of countermeasures, including extra levies of 34% on all US goods and export curbs on some rare earth minerals.

"China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close," Trump said on Saturday on social media. "This is an economic revolution, and we will win. Hang tough, it won't be easy, but the end result will be historic."

Some world leaders moved quickly to strike a deal with Trump to avert economic disruption while others weighed countermeasures.