President Donald Trump's recent threat to slap Colombia with a 25% tariff could serve as a harbinger for how he could interact with Canada, Mexico and other trading partners when it comes to tariffs, according to industry observers interviewed by International Trade Today.
With 25% tariffs on Canadian and/or Mexican goods hanging like a sword of Damocles over importers' heads, some are rushing to bring their goods in before Saturday, some are getting ACH set up for electronic transfer of payment to CBP -- and some are doing absolutely nothing.
A bipartisan bill has been introduced in the House that would require that the minimum tariff charged on Chinese goods be 35%, that tariffs higher than 35% in Column 2 of HTS be applied to some Chinese imports, 100% tariffs on hundreds of items on the Section 301 target list, and that the bound rates for U.S. tariffs, as declared at the World Trade Organization, should be changed to Column 2 for all countries.
North America trade expert Dan Ujczo, from Thompson Hine, was expecting 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico to begin Jan. 20.
World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala asked members of the international trade community at the World Economic Forum to stop "hyperventilating" about proposed tariffs from the Trump administration while warning that tariffs won't bring about the desired effects.
The Trump administration could be laying the groundwork to take broad and sweeping action on trade policy around April 1 when an internal review on U.S. trade policy is due, according to trade lawyers from Barnes Richardson.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who voted against USMCA because he felt it moved too much in the direction of managed trade, told an audience at a Council on Foreign Relations event Jan. 23 that, despite all of his talk of tariffs, "a lot of folks will be surprised at the extent to which President [Donald] Trump will pursue broad, aggressive tariffs."
The Coalition for a Prosperous America, a think tank aligned with Trump's trade policy, issued a new report on agricultural trade, arguing that policies that aimed to lower U.S. tariffs in exchange for better market access for U.S. agricultural exports almost exclusively benefited soybeans, corn and wheat, while hurting fruit and vegetable farmers and livestock operations.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has named Commissioner Peter A. Feldman acting chairman of the agency, effective immediately. Past CPSC chair and President Joe Biden appointee Alex Hoehn-Saric stepped down as chair on Jan. 21.
The chairman of the House Select Committee on China said Jan. 22 that the U.S. should take a harder line against China's aggressive policies on trade, investment and other matters.