The average tax the US charges on imported goods has risen to 20.1%, the highest it has been since the 1910s. This information comes from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
This big increase happened because the US government, led by President Donald Trump, put new taxes on many goods, especially products from China. When Trump became president in January 2025, the average tax was only 2.4%. But since then, many new taxes have been added, undoing years of free trade.
President Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social, that these taxes are helping the US economy. He said the stock market is reaching new records, and the government is earning a lot of money from these taxes.
Trump also warned that if the courts stop these taxes now, it could cause a serious economic crisis similar to the Great Depression of 1929. He said any court decision against these taxes should have happened earlier, not now.
In May, the average tax briefly went up to 24.8%, the highest since 1904, but dropped a little after a short peace deal with China. However, the taxes have started to increase again.
The WTO and IMF’s latest numbers take into account current US trade with countries like the European Union, Japan, and South Korea. Even with some agreements to lower taxes slightly, the current US tax rates are still higher than during the 1930s, when high taxes on imports worsened the Great Depression.
Trump’s plan to charge equal taxes on goods from other countries is meant to reduce the US trade deficit. But other countries have responded by adding their own taxes on US products, making global trade more difficult.
The recent pause in trade tensions between China and the US is ending soon, which means these trade taxes might rise again.
