Going from zero tariffs on most Canadian and Mexican imports to 25% convulsed Capitol Hill and foreign capitals, with some Republicans diverging from the president's protectionist message and Democrats universally using the action to attack Trump as the reason prices will go up.

President Donald Trump directed the Commerce Department to investigate whether the importation of lumber, wooden cabinets, wooden furniture and paper pose a threat to national security under Section 232.

Tariffs on some of the new aluminum and steel derivatives listed in an annex to President Donald Trump’s proclamation expanding the Section 232 tariffs will take effect March 12, according to a pair of notices released by the Commerce Department.

President Donald Trump, contrary to his commerce secretary's suggestion a day earlier that tariffs might be lower than 25% on Mexican and Canadian goods over border issues, told reporters March 3 that "tomorrow, tariffs, 25% on Canada, 25% on Mexico" will be imposed.

The trade community is closely watching whether plans by the Department of Government Efficiency to drastically cut the federal workforce will have any impact on trade operations, judging by recent social media posts.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, blocked his effort to pass a bill through the Senate unanimously that would require Congress to approve tariffs imposed on free-trade partners like Mexico and Canada, or on NATO and major non-NATO allies.

WilmerHale International Trade Practice leader David Ross told panelists on a discussion of reciprocal trade that, "contrary to some earlier expectations, there are indications that the president is not planning to do a line-by-line" tariff adjustment to match tariff levels of trading partners, but, rather, to seek to quantify the costs of higher tariffs and other policies he sees as trade barriers, and to put a single tariff rate on the country's products.

President Donald Trump, perhaps seeking to clarify remarks he made in the Oval Office the previous day (2502260032), posted in the morning Feb. 27 that the fentanyl-related tariffs "scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled."

Lobbyists from Foley & Lardner told a webinar audience that they expect tariffs under the push for reciprocal trade to be implemented "as early as June or July."

Jeffrey Gerrish, former deputy U.S. trade representative for Asia, Europe and the Middle East, told the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee that the time has come to undo the "colossal mistake" of granting permanent normal trading status.