Boma Achenimie 
The United States (US) Customs Service on Saturday announced the commencement of the implementation of President Donald Trump’s unilateral 10% tariff on imports from numerous countries.
Saturday Telegraph reports that this move is set to escalate next week with steeper levies targeting goods from 57 major trading partners.
It was gathered that the baseline 10% tariff kicked off at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time (0401 GMT) across US seaports, airports, and customs warehouses, marking Trump’s bold departure from the decades-old global framework of mutually agreed tariff rates established after World War II.
Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade lawyer at Hogan Lovells and a former White House trade adviser during Trump’s first term, described the policy as a historic shift.
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Speaking at a Brookings Institution event on Thursday, Shaw noted, “This is the single biggest trade action of our lifetime.”
She hinted that the tariffs could evolve as nations scramble to negotiate more favorable rates with the US.
“This is huge. It’s a seismic and significant shift in how we trade with every country on earth,” Shaw emphasized.
The tariff announcement, unveiled on Wednesday, sent shockwaves through global financial markets, erasing a staggering $5 trillion in stock market value for 500 companies by Friday’s close—the largest two-day drop ever recorded.
Oil and commodity prices plummeted while investors sought refuge in government bonds.
Countries such as Australia, Britain, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are among the first to feel the sting of the 10% tariff.
According to a US Customs and Border Protection bulletin to shippers, no leniency will be granted for cargoes already on the water as of midnight Saturday.
However, the agency has offered a 51-day grace period for goods loaded onto vessels or planes and en route to the US before 12:01 a.m. The ET deadline is on Saturday.
The impending higher tariffs on 57 larger trading partners, set to take effect next week, have heightened concerns about global trade disruptions, with analysts predicting ripple effects on economies worldwide, including Nigeria, which maintains significant trade ties with the US.
