Trump had said he would raise levy to 15% after last week’s supreme court ruling

Donald Trump’s new global tariffs have taken effect at 10%, even though he had threatened a higher rate of 15% over the weekend, providing “some relief” for British businesses, according to a lobby group.

After the US president suffered a defeat at the hands of the supreme court on Friday, which struck down his sweeping “liberation day” tariffs imposed last year, he angrily reacted by announcing a 10% global tariff, which he raised to 15% on Saturday in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

According to a notice from the US customs agency, “an additional 10% ad valorem duty on imported articles of every country” has been imposed for a period of 150 days from Tuesday, unless specifically exempt.