President Donald Trump elaborated on his tariff intentions with reporters in the White House, after posting online earlier in the day that 50% tariffs would begin on EU exports on June 1, and that he would be imposing a 25% tariff on imported iPhones.
The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on silicon metal from Angola (A-762-001), Australia (A-602-813), Laos (A-553-001) and Norway (A-403-806), as well as its countervailing duty investigations on silicon metal from Australia (C-602-814), Laos (C-553-002), Norway (C-403-807) and Thailand (C-549-856). The CVD investigations cover entries for calendar year 2024. The AD investigations cover entries April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is looking to continue moving away from proposed rulemakings and instead issue most new rules as interim final or final, said two people with knowledge of the agency’s plans.
Section 232 investigations are "moving much, much quicker" in the second Trump administration, trade lawyer Daniel Cannistra said May 14 on a podcast.
The EU is prepared to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. aircraft and bourbon to avoid "just being a market for U.S. products," an EU trade official said on May 15.
Trade groups representing three strong exporting sectors -- soybeans, semiconductors and medical devices -- and an expert in critical minerals trade all told the Senate Finance Committee that higher tariffs on all countries and products, and constantly changing tariff policy, aren't good for American competitiveness.
The U.K. should be wary of language in the recently announced trade framework with the U.S. (see 2505090006) that calls on Britain to comply with certain supply chain security requirements, which they said the U.S. could use to pressure the U.K. in its trading relationship with China, the U.K. Parliament heard from witnesses this week.
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.
U.S. and Vietnamese officials met May 7 in Vietnam to discuss boosting trade between the two countries and possibly beginning negotiations on a new trade agreement, according to an unofficial translation of a Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade notice. Vietnamese Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien told Marc Knapper, the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, that the two nations should “promptly remove difficulties and obstacles” and “create favorable conditions for businesses in cooperation projects, as well as the purchase and sale of essential products.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, after an evening announcement that he would travel to Switzerland to have trade talks with China on May 10 and 11, said that at current levels of tariffs, there's a trade embargo between the two countries.