WASHINGTON: The US government has already collected about $100 billion in tariff income this year and expects the total to reach $300 billion by the end of this year.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday said that most of the money is coming from new trade tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump, including a 10% duty on nearly all imports and higher charges on steel, aluminium and cars.
Bessent told a White House cabinet meeting that the biggest jump in collections started in the second quarter, , when Trump implemented a near-universal 10% duty on US imports.
He said that more revenue is expected in the coming months.
“So we could expect that that could be well over $300 billion by the end of the year,” Bessent said.
A Treasury spokesperson said the $300 billion target corresponds to the December 31 end of calendar 2025, not the end of the government’s fiscal year on September 30.
Reaching $300 billion in tariff collections this year would imply an exponential increase in collections in coming months and steep and broad tariff increases from current levels.
Bessent added that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated tariff income will total about $2.8 trillion over 10 years, ‘which we think is probably low.’
The Treasury reported record gross customs duties of $22.8 billion in May, a nearly fourfold increase from the $6.2 billion total a year earlier.
That brought customs duty collections for the first eight months of fiscal 2025 to $86.1 billion. Collections for the first five months of calendar 2025 totalled $63.4 billion.
The Treasury is due to report June budget results on Friday, which are expected to show another substantial increase in tariff collections. As of June 30, combined customs and excise tax collections topped $122 billion for the fiscal year to date, according to the Daily Treasury Statement of accounts.
Trump has set a new August 1 deadline for higher ‘reciprocal’ tariff rates set to kick in on nearly all trading partners, with room for negotiations with some countries in the next three weeks for deals to bring them lower.
‘The big money will start coming in on August 1. I think it was made clear today by the letters that were sent out yesterday and today,’ Trump said.
Trump also announced during the same cabinet meeting that he would impose a 50% tariff on copper imports, a metal used in everything from housing to consumer electronics, vehicles, the power grid and military hardware. He also said further tariffs were coming on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.