State of the Union: Trump says 'almost all' countries want to keep trade deals amid SC's ruling

US President Donald Trump has said that “almost all” countries want to uphold the agreed-upon trade deals with Washington, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling on his tariff measures.

Calling the ruling “unfortunate”, Trump said, “But the good news is that almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal that they already made, knowing that the legal power that I as president have to make a new deal could be far worse for them.”

Last week, Trump signed an executive order authorising a 10 per cent import tax hours after the top court ruled against the legality of his tariff measures. He later threatened to increase the rate by 15 per cent, but has not yet signed a directive making the new rates official.

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An administration official told Bloomberg that the White House is working on a formal order that will increase the global tariff rate to 15 per cent, while the timeline for its implementation has not been finalised yet.

‘Unfortunate’

Trump spoke about the Supreme Court of the United States decision last week that struck down his tariffs, saying, “just four days ago, an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court. It just came down, very unfortunate ruling.”

Four justices, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh, were seated in the audience. All but Kavanaugh joined the majority in striking down the tariffs, and Roberts wrote the court’s opinion.

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What changes?

US Customs and Border Protection has said it would stop collecting tariffs struck down by the court starting Tuesday, too.

It separately said it would start collecting the new 10-per-cent tariffs from February 24.

Trump’s new tariff will apply to $1.2 trillion worth of imports on an annual basis or about 34 percent of total goods imported, said Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation.

“The Trump tariffs amounted to an average tax increase per US household of $1,000 in 2025,” she added.

With Trump’s global tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act ruled illegal, his new and existing duties are still set to “result in a household burden of $700 in 2026,” she said.

With inputs from agencies