Donald Trump‘s global tariffs took effect at 12.01am in Washington on Thursday, pushing US import duties to their highest level in a century as the US president launched a new era of trade rivalry.

The escalation came despite frantic lobbying by foreign capitals to escape the levies driving Mr Trump’s economic agenda, as a seven-day grace period from the president’s announcement last week of the latest version of the regime elapsed.

Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter flew home from Washington on Wednesday after failing in a last-ditch attempt to evade some of Mr Trump’s harshest duties. Taiwan, a crucial chips exporter, also failed to cut its tariff rate.

Exporters in Ireland are working out what the new 15 per cent rate applying to all imports from EU states to the US will mean for their businesses.

Whiskey distilleries have been among those looking for a carve out from the new tariff regime. However, as of last night, despite continuing pressure from EU officials, there was no sign that wine and spirits would be exempted from the new regime.

Tanaiste Simon Harris said there was still work to do in the months ahead on the detail of the plans in relation to specific sectors such as pharma.

“It’s absolutely essential that we continue, at a European level, to engage with what is a framework agreement and seek to maximise the number of areas in which there can be zero-for-zero when it comes to tariffs,” he said.

“Whilst there are some areas that have already been agreed as exempt from tariffs between the US and the EU, I’m very eager to see more progress made in more areas, including for the drinks industry, which is an important part of the Irish economy.”

Pharmaceuticals, which account for the bulk of Ireland’s exports to the US, are covered by the new 15 per cent rate for now, although Mr Trump this week said the sector would face escalating tariffs over the next year or two, to as high as 250 per cent.

Mr Harris said there was “huge potential” for the EU and the US to work together in the interests of patients, their economies, and the pharma industry. He said it was “vital” that the US keep to its agreement of a tariff rate of no higher than 15 per cent, and indicated he would seek an improvement on that in the future.

“US pharma companies need to have a base in the European Union — and Ireland has been a very constructive, very good home for those businesses. They’ve done very well in Ireland," he said.

“We need to continue to make sure that nothing happens that causes disruption to the industry or to global supply chains.”

On Wednesday, he indicated he would hit chip imports with a tariff of 100 per cent, although he did not say when, and also held out the possibility of carveouts for companies that invested in the US.

Some goods will still be allowed to enter the US without triggering the higher rate of tariff.

According to a Customs and Border Protection notice published earlier this week, goods cleared through US customs from 12.01am on Thursday will be subject to the higher tariffs.

[ Donald Trump says he plans to put a 100% tariff on computer chipsOpens in new window ]

However, the notice says goods already en route to the US before 12.01am eastern time on Thursday and that arrive by October 5th will not be subject to the new rates.

Lynn Fischer Fox, a lawyer with Arnold & Porter and former US trade official, said the rules meant that goods arriving by plane, truck or train on or after August 7th would be subject to the higher duties. They could include air freight leaving Switzerland on August 7th and arriving in the US on the same day, she said.

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Lawyers said goods being shipped from further afield, such as Asia, may be able to pay lower rates until October 5th, provided they were on the final leg of their journey before August 7th.

Mr Trump’s new terms followed months of threats and reversals, and involve so-called reciprocal levies on almost all foreign countries, as the president moved to reshape an international trading system developed over decades.

“This is a big deal, in the sense that there are new official tariffs,” said Ted Murphy, a trade lawyer at Sidley Austin in Washington. “It’s a big deal because these tariffs have upended things. This is the dawn of a new trade order, and the end of an old order.”

Other trade analysts pointed out the array of new levies now facing the US’s trading partners.

“We are now in a new world. Even to trade nerds, the complexity of this is just bonkers,” said Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The reciprocal tariffs will raise levies even on economies with new US trade deals, including the EU and Japan. China, the world’s biggest exporter, is separate: its trade war truce with Washington ends on August 12th.

While Mexico has also agreed a pause in any new tariffs for 90 days, steep new levies on Canada – the US’s other partner in a North American trade group – have already come into effect.

The reciprocal regime takes force just hours after the US steepened forthcoming tariffs on India to punish it for buying Russian oil – showing Mr Trump remains ready to use his trade war to pursue geopolitical goals.

The August 7th tariff regime marks the second time the president has instructed US customs to apply the sweeping reciprocal levies. In early April, he pushed ahead with his levies before partially suspending them.

Although Mr Trump’s latest reciprocal tariffs are mostly lower than those he announced on “liberation day” on April 2nd, they raise the US’s effective tariff to its highest level in decades.

Switzerland’s eleventh-hour bid to escape Mr Trump’s tariffs leaves the Alpine nation – an exporter of pharmaceuticals, precious metals and watches – with a tariff of 39 per cent, one of the highest among developed nations.

Keller-Sutter met US secretary of state Marco Rubio during her trip to Washington this week, but not US trade representative Jamieson Greer or commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who have both led US trade talks.

Switzerland had initially expected to secure a minimal 10 per cent tariff from the US, in line with the lowest level on offer to other countries. A US official said Mr Trump’s negotiators had not agreed to that.

In a post on X, Keller-Sutter said she had discussed “bilateral co-operation between Switzerland and the US, the tariff situation and international issues” with Mr Rubio. Mr Trump’s secretary of state has not typically been involved in Washington’s negotiations with trading partners.

US trading partners are now bracing themselves for enforcement of the new regime, while unsure if the president is open to negotiating deals to soften the levies.

Mr Trump has hailed his tariffs for “taking in trillions of dollars” for America, and has boasted that his trade deals are making the US “a rich country again”.

Pantheon Macroeconomics, an independent research group, this week said that the US had collected about $30 billion in customs and excise duties in July, up from about $8 billion a month on average in 2024. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025