The president's trade team has been suggesting that its definition of transshipment is different than what the word has traditionally meant -- that they will assign country of origin based on how much of the finished good was made from local inputs.
A 40% tariff on transshipped goods could apply to goods that include third-country content above 30%, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, speaking on Fox Business Aug. 7.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, in two television interviews Aug. 1, defended a surprise 39% rate for Swiss exports and said his focus isn't on reaching new settlements before reciprocal tariffs begin collection Aug. 7. Rather, he said, "We're really focused right now on implementing the deals that have been reached."
On the eve of more tariff hikes, four prominent Senate Democrats decried what they said were so-called deals -- or, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer put it, "a raw deal for the American people."
Georgetown University law professor Jennifer Hillman said that while she expects the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to take months to decide if the tariff actions under emergency powers weren't legal, the court might not stay the vacation of the orders during that time.
The end of reciprocal tariffs and tariffs imposed over fentanyl smuggling from China, Canada and Mexico is on hold until an appellate court decides if the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was illegal for those purposes.
Five senators, both Republicans and Democrats, asked Jamieson Greer, then the U.S. trade representative nominee, to advocate for a formal exclusion process to tariffs, as was done for the Section 301 tariffs in Trump's first term. These written exchanges were recently posted at the Senate Finance Committee website, long after Greer's confirmation vote.
A bill being considered in the House Ways and Means Committee that would extend Trump tax cuts that would otherwise expire at the end of the year is looking to international trade to pay for part of the cost of income tax reductions. The bill also adds new tax breaks, such as on overtime pay and tips.
The Trump administration is leaving 20% tariffs levied in response to fentanyl smuggling in place, while reducing what had been 125% reciprocal tariffs to just 10%, the same as all reciprocal tariffs globally.
President Donald Trump, responding to a reporter's quote from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the administration is considering tariff exemptions for car seats from China [see Ref:2505060052]), said he doesn't know if he wants to do that.