President Donald Trump has raised the United States’ tariffs on foreign goods to an estimated 17.3% since taking office, the nation’s highest since before World War II, according to the Yale University Budget Lab.

The figure includes the latest agreement reached with the European Union this past weekend, bringing the levies to just below the 20% seen during tariff increases in the years after the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Act, reports Financial Times on Tuesday. 

Although the president had threatened tariffs several times but reversed course on them, he has been able to lock in deals for high tariffs on nearly 45% of all U.S. imports, but the tariffs could also force changes in global trade, said Cornell University professor of trade policy and economics Eswar Prasad. 

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