Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., one of the leading voices in the House to end de minimis for e-commerce, said she wants President Donald Trump to remove all e-commerce from de minimis, so that it goes back to its original purpose of covering tourists' purchases. Given international direct-to-consumer shipping, "It’s become a vast gap in our customs regime," she said, causing a "flood of impossibly low-priced products that put American manufacturers out of business," and making it "almost impossible to enforce the ban on goods made with forced labor."
President Donald Trump's chief spokesman from his first term said that half-baked orders from the White House -- like an order to end de minimis for Chinese goods that CBP was not ready to implement -- is in part a result of Trump's memories of his staff trying to slow-walk and stop his tariff ideas.
Correction: A story in the Feb. 10 International Trade Today incorrectly stated that goods on the water would have an earlier March date for Section 232 tariffs to apply (see 2502100011). A White House spokesman incorrectly described the timing of the action. The effective date is actually March 12.
The opening salvos of President Donald Trump's aggressive trade actions in the first weeks of his administration may be a harbinger of what is to come in the next four years as trade experts predict an upending of the global trade system.
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Jamieson Greer, Trump's pick to be U.S. trade representative, told Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that he will make sure that the appropriateness of the 2.5% tariff on cars is reviewed as part of the sunset review for USMCA. Sanders, the most famous leftist in the Senate, had pointed out in his written questions that 2.5% is not high enough to convince all Mexican exporters to follow USMCA rules of origin.
C.J. Mahoney, who led the U.S. team in renegotiating NAFTA during the first Trump administration, described USMCA as "a modest success so far," that has increased U.S. production of auto engines and transmissions, and increased factory construction in both the U.S. and Mexico.
The Commerce Department will have until May 10 to establish a process for including additional derivative steel and aluminum items to be subject to 25% tariffs -- but importers are still waiting to learn what products have already been added to the list.
Tariffs are set to take effect March 12 for steel and steel derivatives from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the U.K., Ukraine and the EU, said the presidential proclamation released late Feb. 10 that increases Section 232 duties on steel, in part by ending Section 232 exemptions and quota agreements for those countries.
An increase in Section 232 tariffs on aluminum to 25% will also take March 12, the same date as changes to steel tariffs, as will a return on tariffs on aluminum from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Mexico, the EU and the U.K. after those countries’ exemptions and quota agreements are ended on that date.