The House of Representatives passed, by large margins, bills that would restore the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Haiti HELP trade preference program, and keep the tariff breaks active through the end of 2028.
President Donald Trump repeated his support for Iranian protesters to an audience in Detroit, saying, "You saw that I put tariffs on anybody doing business with Iran. Just went into effect today."
South Korea's trade minister is in Washington to meet with members of Congress and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to try to calm tensions over a recent law passed in South Korea on data privacy, a Korean newspaper reported.
While the Venezuela military action doesn't affect trade substantially, a panel of experts said the fallout with regard to President Donald Trump's comments about Greenland afterward could "blow up the U.S.-EU deal."
House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, introduced a bill last week that would impose 10% tariffs on goods imported from countries that have trade surpluses with the U.S. and 15% tariffs on goods from countries that have trade deficits with the U.S.
The New York Times reported that Taiwan is close to reaching a tariff deal with the U.S., and its headline tariff rate will be reduced from 20% to 15%. Most Taiwanese exports are not facing any tariffs, because they were carved out of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariff actions.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
President Donald Trump said on social media Jan. 12 that he will, “[e]ffective immediately,” impose a 25% tariff on “any Country doing business” with Iran. The tariffs will cover “any and all business being done with the United States of America,” he said.
Members of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee are urging CBP to provide more clarity on how to comply with Section 232 tariffs, as well as suggesting that CBP enable importers to use publicly available metal commodity pricing for valuation purposes, according to a list of recommendations that the committee is expected to vote on during its quarterly meeting on Jan. 14.
A Danish member of the European Parliament from an eco-socialist party called the Red-Green Alliance is pushing for the parliament to halt consideration of a legislative package that would drop tariffs on American industrial goods and give U.S. agriculture more access to the EU market.