TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsBessent says US tariff revenue could be well over $500 billion a year
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Freshly-picked tomatoes are seen packed in boxes inside a warehouse at Agroindustrias Campo Real, a Mexican exporter to the US, following the US government's decision to impose a 17 percent duty on fresh tomato imports, in Zacatecas, Mexico, on Aug. 13, 2025. (Reuters/Edgar Chavez)
U
S Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that customs duty revenues from President Donald Trump's tariffs may top US$500 billion a year, with a substantial jump from July to August and likely a bigger jump in September.
Bessent told a White House Cabinet meeting that his prior estimate of a $300 billion annual tariff collection rate was too low.
"We had a substantial jump from July to August, and I think we're going to see a bigger jump from August to September," Bessent said. "So I think we could be on our way well over half a trillion, maybe towards a trillion-dollar number. This administration, your administration, has made a meaningful dent in the budget deficit."
Tariff revenue would offset the deficit increases triggered by the Republicans' tax-cut and spending bill passed this year. CBO estimated this bill would widen the deficit by $3.4 trillion over the next decade.
Trump's tariffs drove July US customs duty collections up by nearly $21 billion from the $7 billion collected in July 2024 and about even with the $20 billion increase registered in June. Significant increases in tariff rates for nearly all trading partners kicked in on Aug. 7.
The US Treasury reported on Monday that as of Aug. 22, the government had collected $29.6 billion in combined customs and excise taxes so far during August, matching its total for the whole month of July. As of July 22, that combined figure stood at $7.8 billion, but customs duty collections can vary from day to day.
Bessent also noted that the Congressional Budget Office's upwardly revised estimate last week of federal revenue from Trump's tariffs, forecasting that it could reduce federal deficits by $4 trillion over 10 years. "And I would expect that that number could go up from here," Bessent added.
The latest CBO estimate marks an increase from June when it forecast that revenue from new tariffs would reduce deficits by $3 trillion over 10 years.
