There is a directive from President Donald Trump to quickly land deals in steel, aluminum and energy, according to Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who spoke to Canadian reporters in the late afternoon Oct. 7, after a White House visit accompanying Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Mexican media reported that President Claudia Sheinbaum said in her daily press conference that Mexico will try to get an exemption from the announced 25% tariff on medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, in trying to elaborate on the "significant tariff relief" he said was coming for domestic car production, said that the administration is considering how to "open the aperture" of how you use the 3.75% offset of tariffs available for autos assembled between April 3 and May 1, 2026.
The Industry Alliance for Trade EnforcementNOW, a new coalition, is asking the administration and Congress to make changes in trade enforcement to aid domestic manufacturers.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to expand trade actions started with the Section 232 investigation on pharmaceuticals, so that they cover generic drugs and the active pharmaceutical ingredients and key starting materials in those medicines.
President Donald Trump and Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had a "friendly" talk for 30 minutes Oct. 6, according to an unofficial translation of a Brazilian readout. Trump wrote on social media, "This morning, I had a very good telephone call with President Lula, of Brazil. We discussed many things, but it was mostly focused on the Economy, and Trade, between our two Countries. We will be having further discussions, and will get together in the not too distant future, both in Brazil and the United States. I enjoyed the call — Our Countries will do very well together!"
Think tank scholars said they think it's possible that tariffs on Chinese goods could decline by 20 percentage points after the two countries' presidents meet in a month, but that it's also possible that tariffs could soar again if President Donald Trump is angered by China's support for Russia, Iran or aggression toward the Philippines.
Tariff preferences for sub-Saharan African countries and two of the three tariff preference programs for Haiti ended Oct. 1. In a hallway interview at the Capitol, Senate Finance Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said that he "would love to [renew both] retroactively."
The chief negotiator for the European Union, Maros Sefcovic, said that while the EU has a reputation for having "very complicated rules and regulations," that doesn't compare to the burden on companies trying to quantify how much steel (and its cost at the time it was sourced) went into making a Bosch refrigerator, Miele dishwasher or a BMW motorcycle.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that while the administration doesn't expect to lose its tariff case at the Supreme Court, "wherever we end up," the approach will be similar to what it is now.