CBP created Harmonized System Update 2508 on March 3, containing 58 Automated Broker Interface (ABI) records and 17 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records. HSU 2508 includes the recent Canada, Mexico and China tariff updates as well as several PGA HTS flag updates: FDA tariff flags on eight HTS codes under heading 1207, from FD4 to FD3.
An exemption for USMCA-qualifying goods from 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico will also take effect March 7, alongside the USMCA exemption for Canada, according to an executive order signed today by President Donald Trump. Like the Canada order, it also lowers the tariff for potash that doesn’t qualify for the USMCA exemption to 10%.
An exemption for USMCA-qualifying goods from 10% and 25% tariffs on goods from Canada will take effect at 12:01 a.m. on March 7. An executive order signed by President Donald Trump exempts all goods “that are entered free of duty as a good of Canada under the terms of general note 11” of the tariff schedule from the tariffs, “including any treatment set forth in subchapter XXIII of chapter 98 and subchapter XXII of chapter 99.”
The President has amended the executive orders imposing 25% tariffs on all Mexican goods, 10% tariffs on Canadian energy and 25% tariffs on other Canadian imports so that any good that qualifies for USMCA preference will be able to avoid the tariff, the White House said.
President Trump posted on social media: "After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement. This Agreement is until April 2nd. I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum. Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the Border, both in terms of stopping Illegal Aliens from entering the United States and, likewise, stopping Fentanyl. Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation!"
Three senators introduced a resolution that would terminate the emergency that the president declared on the northern border -- which, if successful, would terminate the 25% tariff on most Canadian goods and 10% tariff on energy that President Donald Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., speaking March 5 at the American Enterprise Institute about the path to pass a tax cuts extension and spending cuts bill, said that tariff revenue will help to pay down government debt, even if it's not part of the legislative package.
President Donald Trump posted on social media March 5 that his call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "ended in a 'somewhat' friendly manner," but that he told him that a reduction in fentanyl smuggling from Canada to the U.S. is not good enough.
CBP plans to double down on implementing President Donald Trump's America First trade policy, according to federal officials speaking during the quarterly meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, held in Atlanta on March 5.
Rep. Linda Sanchez of California, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, criticized President Donald Trump's executive actions, predecessor Joe Biden's rulemaking and a past bill that moved through Ways and Means that aimed to curtail de minimis in various ways. She called them all "half-measures or simply playing Whac-A-Mole with specific countries."