Trump slaps 25% tariffs on any countries that do business with Iran

President Trump said Monday he’s imposing 25% tariffs on goods from all countries that do business with Iran — a sweeping measure as the Trump administration heaps pressure on the Iranian government amid nationwide anti-regime protests.

Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that the new tariffs will apply to “any and all business being done with the United States of America.” He said the tariffs would take effect immediately.

It’s not clear which countries will face the new tariffs. But Iran does billions of dollars’ worth of business with one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners — China — and with the United Arab Emirates, an American ally in the Gulf region. 

The world’s largest buyer of Iranian goods is China, which imported some $22.4 billion in goods from Iran in 2022, according to World Bank figures. China secretly imports Iranian oil despite tight U.S. sanctions designed to choke Iran’s petroleum industry, a CBS News investigation revealed last year. 

China is also the U.S.’s third-largest trading partner, with Americans buying $438.9 billion worth of Chinese goods in 2024, according to the Census Bureau.

Meanwhile, Iran imported around $18 billion in goods from the United Arab Emirates. The country is one of the U.S.’s key security partners in the area, with thousands of U.S. forces stationed there.

Very little trade takes place between Iran and the U.S., due to years of intense sanctions levied on Iran due to the country’s nuclear program. But the sanctions on countries that do business with Iran represent a new effort to it from the global economy. 

The new tariffs come as Iran is swept by its largest wave of protests in years, fueled in part by the country’s spiraling economy. More than 500 people have been reported dead in the protests, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. 

Mr. Trump has repeatedly pledged to intervene if Iran’s regime starts cracking down by killing protesters, and he has been briefed on options for military strikes in Iran, a senior U.S. official told CBS News.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” the president told reporters Sunday evening. “We’ll make a determination.”