Like sand through the hour glass, so are the days of US tariffs.

So in case you missed it, US President Donald Trump announced a major expansion of US import taxes, raising a global tariff rate to 15 percent on goods coming into America from nearly every country. 

Think back to April 2025 whenTrump launched what he called “Liberation Day” tariffs. They were backed by a national emergency declaration under a 1977 law that gave the president sweeping powers.

But in February 2026, the US Supreme Court told the administration that they couldn’t use the law in that way. That was illegal, pretty much.

The ruling should have wiped out much of the tariff regime, potentially lowering import taxes and easing price pressure on consumers.

But Trump didn’t let that stand. Within days of the ruling, he used a different part of US trade law to impose the tariff and said he’s gonna bump it up to 15%, which is the maximum allowed under that statute.

So practically speaking, what does 15% mean?

It means when goods enter the US, the importing company pays a tax equal to 15% of the product’s value. That applies across multiple countries. It’s not just about China or one specific trade partner. It’s wide-reaching.

According to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, most of the cost of the tariffs didn’t stay overseas like the Trump administration intended. It stayed in America.

Importers paid the tariff to the US government. Then many of them raised prices. So consumers ended up paying more at checkout.

In cases where companies didn’t pass it all on, they absorbed the hit through lower profits.

So even though the political messaging often is “foreign countries are paying,” the economic data showed American businesses and shoppers carried most of the burden.

And of course, everything America does impacts Jamaica. For one, Jamaica companies will have to pay more to export to the US.  But it’s worse than that.  The Jamaica Post Office still isn’t accepting parcels to the United States.  So small exporters have to use much more expensive services like FedEx and DHL, which drives up their cost of doing business and cuts into their profits.

The tariffs also impact us in other areas like remittances and tourism.  If US consumers are paying more for goods and services at home, they have less money to send back to the Caribbean or to spend on vacations. 

For countries like Jamaica that depend on both remittances and tourism, it’s a hard pill to swallow.

And that’s the bottom line.