United States President Donald Trump has said that his reciprocal tariffs will take effect at midnight of August 6 (August 7 IST), adding that this will bring back “billions of dollars” from countries that have “taken advantage of the US for many years”.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Donald Trump wrote: “RECIPROCAL TARIFFS TAKE EFFECT AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT! BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, LARGELY FROM COUNTRIES THAT HAVE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THE UNITED STATES FOR MANY YEARS, LAUGHING ALL THE WAY, WILL START FLOWING INTO THE USA.”

“THE ONLY THING THAT CAN STOP AMERICA’S GREATNESS WOULD BE A RADICAL LEFT COURT THAT WANTS TO SEE OUR COUNTRY FAIL!” he added, taking a jab at opponents.

In another post, once it was past midnight in the US, Donald Trump added, “IT’S MIDNIGHT!!! BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TARIFFS ARE NOW FLOWING INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!”

After months of chaos, tariffs jump for all, friends and ‘foes’

After months of chaotic threats and reversals, tariffs have risen for almost all US trading partners, regardless of them being allies or not, one Bloomberg report noted.

This pushes average US tariff rate to 15.2 per cent, Bloomberg Economics estimates — much above the 2.3 per cent imposed just last year (2024), and the highest since World War II, it added.

Notably, US allies such as the European Union, Japan and South Korea have all accepted 15 per cent duties on their products, including 25 per cent on auto exports; while other countries were simply assigned rates, ranging from 10 per cent to much higher.

Some of the last adjustments made were with the Swiss president, who left unsuccessful in reducing the 39 per cent duties; while Donald Trump on August 6 — just the day ahead — doubled India’s tariffs from 25 per cent to 50 per cent as “punishment” for trading with Russia. This came even as talks between US and Indian counterparts are ongoing.

Way ahead for the US economy? Donald Trump claims golden era, experts say…

Both supporters and detractors agree on one aspect: Donald Trump’s tariff regime will cause a seismic shift for the US economy.

While Donald Trump himself claims that imposing tariffs would expand US manufacturing, increase jobs and in effect make the US the “greatest” in line with his ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign; experts warn of inflation and that it will be domestic consumers and firms that will end up bridging the pricing differences.

Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former US trade negotiator told Bloomberg that the signs are hinting to “tougher times” ahead. “A lot of companies have been building up inventories before the tariffs went into place. It is almost inevitable that prices increase because businesses are unlikely to sustain lower margins over the long term,” she added.

Brad Jensen, a professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, said growing tariff revenues and jobs simultaneously is hard. “Both cannot be true. If there is an uptick in domestic manufacturing then we don’t have tariff revenue because fewer goods will be imported.”

(With inputs from Bloomberg)