Trump Touts Secondary Tariffs on Countries Importing From Iran
President Donald Trump repeated his support for Iranian protesters to an audience in Detroit, saying, "You saw that I put tariffs on anybody doing business with Iran. Just went into effect today."
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Every time new tariffs have started to be collected this year, a CSMS message has been issued. There has been no proclamation, executive order, or Federal Register notice, just a social media post regarding that, which didn't say how the 25% tariffs would be applied, such as whether they would be in addition to most-favored-nation and reciprocal tariffs.
While the 10 largest customers of Iranian exports are China, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Oman and Kuwait, there are five other countries that bought more than $100 million worth of goods from Iran in 2023, including Germany, Italy, two former Soviet Republics and Qatar, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
Another 29 countries bought at least $11 million worth of goods from Iran in 2023, including Japan, Canada, Australia, Kenya, Malaysia, Jordan and Lebanon.
Iran only sold more than $1 billion worth of goods to three countries — China, Turkey and India. Turkish products that are within the International Emergency Economic Powers Act scope currently face a 15% reciprocal tariff, Indian goods a 50% tariff, and Chinese goods within IEEPA's scope, a 20% tariff.
Arabian Gulf Business Insight, a business paper in the Middle East, quoted the director of the Multilateral Trade Studies Centre at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey as saying tariffs of 25% plus 15% would be ruinous.
Director Bozkurt Aran said, "With the additional tariffs, the amount added to the price will rise more than 40%, meaning our producers cannot compete in the U.S."
According to the Turkish government, from January to November 2025, Germany was its top export market, at $20.4 billion, the U.K. was second at $15.2 billion, and the U.S. was third, at $14.8 billion.
In addition to his remarks about secondary sanctions via tariffs on Iranian customers, Trump echoed a post he'd made earlier in the day, which said, “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Jan. 13. “I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
He said he was getting varying reports on how many protesters had died, but said, "Look, one death is too much."
Before the Jan. 13 speech at the Economic Club of Detroit, Trump toured a Ford auto plant in the Detroit area.
Trump also talked about trade in the car industry, saying at the Ford plant that the U.S. doesn't want cars built in Canada, and, at the Economic Club, saying his 25% tariff on all foreign automobiles was causing car companies to move production to the U.S. He bragged that GM is moving production of the Chevy Blazer and Equinox from Mexico into the U.S.
A 25% tariff is no longer levied on all foreign automobiles; cars made in the EU, Japan and South Korea face a 15% tariff, cars made in the U.K. can enter under a tariff rate quota, and Mexican and Canadian cars can deduct the value of U.S. content.
Trump said he'd be happy for Japanese and Chinese-owned automakers to open plants in the U.S.
"They’ll be building plants, but they’ll be using our labor," he said.