Although China agreed to temporarily suspend its sweeping rare earth export restrictions, the threat of those controls returning appears likely, said Jude Blanchette, director of the Rand China Research Center.
China’s recently issued rare earth export controls were likely a response to the Commerce Department’s 50% rule for the Entity List and highlighted the ongoing communication issues between the two sides, said David Sacks, the White House’s AI policy adviser.
President Donald Trump told reporters that unless China stops fentanyl shipments, resumes buying U.S. soybeans and stops playing "the rare earth game with us," he won't lower tariffs.
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.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security posted 95 requests for inclusions of new tariff subheadings under 50% Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives. Comments on the inclusion requests are due in 14 days, on Oct. 21, and the postings also kick off a 60-day period for BIS to consider the requests.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to defend his assessment that "adequate systems were in place to 'fully and expeditiously process and collect duties for articles otherwise eligible for duty-free de minimis treatment on a global basis'" by July 30.
The Commerce Department released its shutdown contingency plan on Sept. 29, which stated that only 60 out of 1,272 International Trade Association employees are excepted from furlough as "most services and activities" of the agency will cease, though the Bureau of Industry and Security's work on Section 232 investigations will continue.
The Commerce Department launched an investigation on Sept. 2 on the import of industrial machinery and robotics, and whether domestic producers should be protected in order to improve U.S. national security.
The first window for requests for new auto parts to be covered by Section 232 tariffs will open Oct. 1, beginning a 14-day submission window, followed by a 60-day period to consider the inclusion requests, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said in an interim final rule outlining the inclusion process.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is again accepting requests for new products to be included under Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives, it said in a notice released late on Sept. 15. Inclusion requests will be accepted through Sept. 29, after which the agency will post the inclusion requests it receives for comment and begin a 60-day process to consider whether to grant the inclusions.