Trump broadens tariff agenda

Tariffs are back at the center of Trump’s trade agenda — just in a different legal form. After the Supreme Court knocked out his broad 2025 tariff program on February 20, the administration did not back off. It started rebuilding the same pressure campaign with older, narrower laws that are harder to challenge and easier to target at specific sectors. The big move came on April 2, when Trump rewrote the Section 232 tariffs on metals and added a new Section 232 tariff regime for pharmaceuticals. (grantthornton.com) ### Why did the strategy change? The short version is legal survival. Trump had used emergency powers under IEEPA to slap broad tariffs on imports from almost everywhere, but the Supreme Court shut that down. So the White House shifted to tools that Congress explicitly wrote into trade law — Section 122 for a temporary broad tarif(grantthornton.com)ly, the administration is trying to rebuild the tariff wall with statutes the court has not touched. (grantthornton.com) ### What changed on metals? The April 2 proclamation made the metals regime both simpler and more aggressive. Goods made entirely or almost entirely of steel, aluminum, or copper now face a 50% tariff on their full value. Derivative goods that are substantially made of those metals face 25% on full value. Some industrial and grid (grantthornton.com)rs can no longer argue for tariffs based only on the metal content inside a finished product. (whitehouse.gov) ### Why does “full value” matter so much? Because it can turn a targeted tariff into a much bigger bill. Think of a machine with a steel shell and expensive electronics inside. Under the old logic, the tariff might hit only the steel portion. Under the new logic, the duty can apply to the entire custom(whitehouse.gov)t buyers downstream. (whitehouse.gov) ### Why are pharmaceuticals suddenly in this? This is the newer and stranger front. Trump also used Section 232 on April 2 to impose tariffs of up to 100% on certain patented pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical ingredients, and related materials. Some of those tariffs begin July 31, 2026, with others start(whitehouse.gov)s pharma the clearest sign yet that Section 232 is no longer just about steel mills and smelters. (taxnews.ey.com) ### Are allies getting carved out? Sometimes — but selectively. The U.K. has a special arrangement that lets pharmaceuticals enter tariff-free, tied to broader U.S.-U.K. trade commitments. And on April 30 Trump said he would remove tariffs and restrictions affecting Scotland-Kentucky whiskey ties after meeting King Charles III. T(taxnews.ey.com)g to bargain on Trump’s terms. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) ### Why haven’t markets panicked? Partly because investors now see tariffs as negotiable rather than final. Partly because the post-court version is more sector-specific than the 2025 all-at-once shock. The Tax Policy Center even estimates the April 2 metals rewrite and pharma tariffs together lower the average tariff rate by 1.4 percentage points versus the ea(commonslibrary.parliament.uk) explosion and more as a rolling series of industry fights. (taxpolicycenter.org) ### What is Europe worried about? Europe’s concern is not just the tariff rates. It is the precedent. Maroš Šefčovič has been trying to preserve the existing U.S.-EU bargain and keep talks from getting loaded up with new demands. But the administration’s use of Section 232 across more sectors means any industry with a supply-chain or security angle could become the next target(taxpolicycenter.org) the pressure stays constant. (politico.eu) ### So what’s the bottom line? Trump’s tariff agenda did not shrink after the court loss — it got more modular. That sounds less dramatic, but it may be more durable. The fight now is not whether he wants more tariffs. It is whether these narrower laws let him keep imposing them sector by sector without running into the same legal wall again.