US customs agents began collecting President Donald Trump's unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries today, 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 sea ports, airports and customs warehouses at midnight, ushering in Mr 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 Mr Trump's first term.
Ms Shaw told a Brookings Institution event on Thursday that she expected the tariffs to evolve over time as countries seek to negotiate lower rates.
"But this is huge. This is a pretty seismic and significant shift in the way that we trade with every country on earth," she added.
Mr Trump's tariff announcement on Wednesday shook global stock markets, wiping out $5 trillion in stock market value for S&P 500 companies by yesterday'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 today.
But a US Customs and Border Protection bulletin did provide a 51-day grace period for cargoes loaded onto vessels or planes and in transit to the US before 12:01am. These cargoes need to arrive by 12:01am on 27 May to avoid the 10% duty.
At the same hour on Wednesday, Mr Trump's higher "reciprocal" tariff rates of 11% to 50% are due to take effect. European Union imports, including from Ireland, will be hit with a 20% tariff, while Chinese goods will be hit with a 34% tariff, bringing Mr Trump's total new levies on China to 54%.
Beijing said today that "the market has spoken" in rejecting Mr 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," Mr Trump said today 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," said Mr Trump.
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Shortly after posting the comment, Mr Trump was spotted arriving at his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, reading a New York Post article covering China's retaliation to Trump's tariffs and the stock market "crash".
Some world leaders moved quickly to strike a deal with Mr Trump to avert economic disruption while others weighed countermeasures.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit the White House on Monday, sources said, as unspecified goods from the country face a 17% tariff under the new policy.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was reportedly seeking a telephone conversation with Mr Trump. Tokyo faces a 24% levy.
Vietnam, which benefited from the shift of US supply chains away from China after Mr Trump's first-term trade war with Beijing, will be hit with a 46% tariff and agreed yesterday to discuss a deal with Mr Trump.
It is understood the meeting will take place on Wednesday.
The two men have already spoken on the telephone in recent days when they discussed the two-way nature of the trading relationship between the countries.
Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti warned today against the imposition of retaliatory tariffs on the United States, saying at a business forum near Milan that doing so could cause damage.
Canada and Mexico were exempt from both Mr Trump's latest duties because they are still subject to a 25% tariff related to the US fentanyl crisis for goods that do not comply with the US-Mexico-Canada rules of origin.
Mr Trump is excluding goods subject to separate, 25% national security tariffs, including steel and aluminium, cars, trucks and auto parts.
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His administration also released a list of more than 1,000 product categories exempted from the tariffs. Valued at $645bn in 2024 imports, these include crude oil, petroleum products and other energy imports, pharmaceuticals, uranium, titanium, lumber and semiconductors and copper.
Except for energy, the Trump administration is investigating several of these sectors for further national security tariffs.
Musk hopes for 'zero tariffs' between US and Europe
US tech-billionaire Elon Musk has said he hoped in future to see complete freedom of trade between the United States and Europe.
Mr Musk, a Trump adviser who has been working to eliminate wasteful US public spending, spoke via video-link at a congress in Florence of Italy's right-wing, co-ruling League Party.
"At the end of the day, I hope it's agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America," Mr Musk said.
