Sponsors of the No Coffee Tax Act lauded the president's decision to roll back reciprocal tariffs on coffee, but Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., noted that the additional 40% tariffs on Brazilian coffee were unchanged. She said Nov. 17 that Brazil is the top source of American coffee.
The bipartisan group of senators that demanded votes to terminate the emergencies that underlie reciprocal tariffs, Brazil tariffs and Canada tariffs wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson, urging him to schedule the same votes in his chamber.
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Congress will move toward a vote on a bill that gives the president the authority to hike tariffs on goods from countries that buy Russian energy, and directs him to prohibit banking transactions and foreign exchange transactions for Russian companies doing business with companies or banks in other countries.
Customs brokers that filed entries after tariff exemptions on agricultural products took retroactive effect on Nov. 13 should file corrections "as soon as possible," according to a Nov. 14 cargo systems message outlining guidance on the exemptions for agricultural products (see 2511140054).
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.
The White House released a fact sheet Nov. 13 confirming details of the recent U.S.-South Korea tariff deal.
The White House issued a fact sheet Nov. 14 confirming a trade deal with Switzerland that sets a "cumulative reciprocal tariff rate of no higher than 15%" for Switzerland, giving it the "same treatment given to the European Union."
President Donald Trump may look to ramp up his use of sections 232 and 301 should the Supreme Court rule that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act can't be used for levying tariffs, various lawyers told us. However, the expanded use of these statutes, both as they are being used now and how they may be used to supplant the existing reciprocal and fentanyl trafficking tariffs, may encounter legal difficulties.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order late Nov. 14 exempting many agricultural products from all reciprocal tariffs. The executive order said the new tariff exemptions took effect at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 13.