12:03 - 23.02.2026

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February 23, Fineko/abc.az. Donald Trump's decision to raise flat duties on imports from all countries of the world from 10% to 15%, which he announced on February 21, turned into an unexpected result.

ABC.AZ informs that according to an analysis by independent trade monitor Global Trade Alert (GTA) conducted for the Financial Times, the amount of duties for Brazil will decrease by an average of 13.6 percentage points, and for China by 7.1 p.p. India also entered the Top 3 of beneficiaries with a drop of about 6 p.p.

"China, Brazil, Mexico and Canada, which were the most heavily criticized by the White House and targeted with special duties, will now receive the largest tariff reductions," explained Johannes Fritz, an economist and head of GTA, who conducted the analysis.

Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia will also benefit from the new level of duties, especially manufacturers of clothing, furniture, toys and plastics in these countries.

At the same time, Washington's closest allies will be among the losers. For the UK, the average level of duties will increase by 2.1% and for the European Union by 0.8%. Japan was also included in the list of affected countries. It is linked with the fact that these countries’ exports are structurally focused on steel, aluminum and automobiles, which remained under the influence of other tariff regimes.

A new round of trade war began after U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on February 20, which declared the imposition of duties on the basis of IEEPA illegal. Trump called the verdict a "disgrace" and moved to apply Section 122 of the Trade Act, maintaining tariffs for 150 days. At the same time, the U.S. is preparing new investigations under section 301 for possible tightening of country measures - in fact, the trade standoff begins anew.