The Trump Administration’s dramatic shifts in trade policy – from “Liberation Day” forward – have created widespread confusion regarding the scope and costs of its tariffs. To add clarity, Trade Policy Analyst Jacob Jensen compares the effective rates under the administration’s former International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and current Section 122 tariff regimes. The research also highlights the administration’s increasing use of exemptions, most likely to ease the cost burden of these tariffs.

Key points:

• As with the IEEPA tariffs, the president exempted wide swaths of consumer-facing imports such as electronic and food products to ease concerns over rising prices.
• This research finds that the president exempted more than 60 percent of U.S. imports from Section 122 tariffs compared to 38 percent under IEEPA; this wider net of exemptions under Section 122 has lowered the overall U.S. tariff rate from around 14 percent to 10 percent.
• The Trump Administration’s increasingly broad tariff carveouts signal a retreat from hardline tariff rhetoric as consumer affordability concerns grow, meaning tariff costs may have reached their high-water mark in 2025.

Read the analysis.