Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., continues to emphasize the importance of a long-term preference program for both sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti, but, in responses to questions for the record, deputy U.S. trade representative nominee Jeffrey Goettman said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative supports a one-year renewal for both.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order Nov. 20 exempting 238 tariff schedule subheadings covering agricultural products from the 40% additional International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariff on Brazil. The new exemptions take retroactive effect Nov. 13 at 12:01 a.m ET.
The Congressional Budget Office updated its estimate of how much tariffs would reduce the federal deficit, if they stayed in place for 10 years, now saying they would reduce it by $2.5 trillion rather than $3.3 trillion (not counting saved interest costs).
Democrats on the House Small Business Committee said tariffs are leading to a decline in the manufacturing sector, with mixed reactions from the witnesses at a "How Main Street is Revitalizing Manufacturing" hearing.
A think tank says a surgical modernization of CAFTA-DR is the best approach for the future of the free trade agreement, though allowing Central American countries or the Dominican Republic to join USMCA is another option.
As a Russia sanctions bill appears to have more momentum (see 2511170041), Democratic senators declined to say what tariff levels would be effective or appropriate if it becomes law.
The bipartisan group of senators that demanded votes to terminate the emergencies that underlie reciprocal tariffs, Brazil tariffs and Canada tariffs wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson, urging him to schedule the same votes in his chamber.
A year after the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission recommended that de minimis be terminated, and that normal trading relations with China be terminated, only one of its top 10 recommendations was about the treatment of imports. Its annual report for 2025 recommends that Congress ban the import of energy storage systems that have remote monitoring capabilities, if they are made by Chinese companies or their technology was licensed by Chinese companies. Most utility-scale storage batteries are lithium-ion, and 80% of those batteries are made in China.
United Autoworkers labor union members from John Deere and Caterpillar visited the Commerce Department last week, asking the agency to launch a Section 232 investigation on imports of heavy machinery and equipment.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said once the agreement with China on rare earth minerals is signed, he expects "that the magnets will flow freely as they did before April 4."