Taiwanese auto parts and derivative goods subject to the lumber 232 actions will be subject to a 15% tariff, rather than the 25% rates applicable to most countries, the Commerce Department announced. The reciprocal tariff for Taiwan will also be cut, from 20% to 15%, inclusive of most-favored nation duties.
Taiwanese auto parts and lumber derivatives subject to Section 232 actions will be subject to a 15% tariff, rather than the 25% rates applicable to most countries, the Commerce Department announced Jan. 15. The reciprocal tariff for Taiwan also will be cut, from 20% to 15%, inclusive of most-favored-nation duties.
Certain advanced chips, whose parameters are described in the annex to a presidential proclamation, will be subject to 25% tariffs starting Jan. 15, but a broad array of domestic uses are carved out of the Section 232 action.
Former trade negotiators said the removal of reciprocal tariffs on agricultural goods not grown at scale in the U.S. is a harbinger of things to come, as the administration starts to recognize that tariffs are politically unpopular.
Trade experts -- including the chief negotiator for the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement -- were puzzled by language in a joint statement on the recent Korea tariff deal Nov. 15.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, is asking Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to tell him whether allied governments were consulted before the White House announced that chip exports from Nexperia's China factory would resume, suggesting that the EU was caught flat-footed at the development. Nexperia makes semiconductors used in automobiles.
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he flew in Asia, said he expects that the 20% tranche of tariffs on China, levied due to China's lack of action to crack down on fentanyl trafficking, will be lowered after he meets with President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
The EU should expand export controls over advanced technology and impose new tariffs against China to counter Beijing’s sweeping export curbs on rare earths (see 2510090021), a major European think tank said this week.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, in a joint press conference with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, said the administration has already drafted some documents to hike tariffs on Chinese goods, and is drafting other documents that might impose more export controls for goods sold to Chinese firms.
President Donald Trump, on his way to Israel, softened his message on tariffs on Chinese goods. When asked if imposing those tariffs was still the plan, he said, "Right now it is. Let's see what happens. November 1st is an eternity."