Trump's rebuilt tariff policy includes new import taxes and a wide range of exemptions, raising economic uncertainty and affecting U.S. trade policy.

Trump Pokes More Holes In His Tariff Wall, Even As He Rebuilds It

Published June 03, 2026

Key Takeaways

The new tariffs announced this week come with a 76-page list of exempted items including beef, coffee and aircraft parts.
The many exemptions to President Donald Trump's tariffs over the last year have limited their impact.

Another week, another set of tariffs, and another set of exceptions to them.

President Donald Trump's administration proposed a fresh set of tariffs Tuesday evening targeting 60 countries, including major trading partners, which it accuses of having inadequate safeguards against using products made with forced labor. The countries will be subject to a tariff of up to 12.5%, going into effect at some point after a hearing scheduled for July 7, the U.S. Trade Representative said.1

Those tariffs came with a long list of exemptions: you'll still be able to import "Coral, shells, cuttlebone and similar materials, unworked or simply prepared but not cut to shape; powder and waste thereof" without paying any additional import taxes. Also exempt are coffee, beef, aircraft parts and other items, the list of which runs 76 pages.2

Separately, on Monday, the White House said it was cutting tariffs on industrial and agricultural equipment including combines, harvesters, bulldozers and forklifts to 15% from 25%, and down to 10% if they were made with mostly American metal.3

What This Means for the Economy

The large number of exemptions to the tariffs imposed starting last year has complicated the task of complying with them, while reducing the overall drag the tariffs exert on the economy.

The announcements continued a pattern that has been repeated since Trump began a far-reaching campaign of imposing tariffs on nearly every U.S. trading partner in 2025: tariffs are put up, but with numerous exemptions that increase as time goes on.

The fact that so many products avoid tariffs has kept the actual rate that Americans pay well below the announced levels, economists say. Overall, Americans are paying an average tariff of 9.3% on imported products despite some announced tariff rates being much higher, Grace Zwemmer, U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, estimated in a commentary Tuesday.

The exemptions have come nearly as fast and furious as the tariffs themselves. For instance, after Trump's "Liberation Day" announcement, in which he set up sweeping import taxes on most countries in the world, he exempted iPhones and other consumer electronics. In April, when the King and Queen of the U.K. visited, Trump celebrated by lifting the tariff on British whiskey. In November, the administration exempted a swathe of food products in an effort to drive down grocery prices.4

The latest wave of tariffs is part of an effort to rebuild Trump's regime of import taxes he imposed in 2025 largely using emergency powers. After the Supreme Court struck down those tariffs as illegal, the administration has been setting them back up by different legal mechanisms piece-by-piece while paying out refunds to companies for the invalidated ones.

Related Education

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Meanwhile, every U.S. trading partner is subject to a temporary 10% global tariff Trump imposed immediately after his Supreme Court defeat. That measure expires in July, about when the latest round of tariffs are on track to take effect.

In addition to the tariffs announced Tuesday, which are justified under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the administration is pursuing additional tariffs on 11 countries for the unfair trade practice of creating "structural excess capacity" in their economies.

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