US households paid $1,000 more for the same goods over the past year, with lower-income families hit the hardest.One year ago today, during a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House in Washington, US President Donald Trump announced a new 10 percent global tariff as part of a sweeping executive order he dubbed “Liberation Day”.The immediate fallout from his announcement was severe, with the stock market suffering its worst drop since the pandemic. In the following days, countries scrambled to make deals with Washington or retaliate with their own levies.On February 20, the Supreme Court ruled that most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal, noting that the president does not have the authority to impose broad, open-ended tariffs by claiming a national emergency. US President Donald J Trump, alongside Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, right, addresses a news conference about the Supreme Court’s striking down of most of his tariffs in the briefing room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, February 20, 2026 [Bonnie Cash/EPA]Where do global tariffs stand now?While the Supreme Court’s ruling was a major legal blow to the administration, it did not end the trade war. Within hours of the ruling, the president invoked a different statute to launch a temporary tariff, which is set to expire this July.Even though the initial tariffs have now been struck down, their effects have already reshaped the US economy.Between their implementation and the Supreme Court ruling, the average effective US tariff rate rose from 2.6 percent to more than 13 percent according to …
