Trump transition team members may have already drafted an executive order hiking tariffs on Chinese imports, said Peterson Institute for International Economics fellow Mary Lovely, during a webinar moderated by former European commissioner and now PIIE fellow Cecilia Malmstrom.
Members of the House Ways and Means Committee majority, who will lead the extension or expansion of the first Trump term income tax cuts, are expressing some hesitancy about using tariffs as a pay-for.
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President-elect Donald Trump will nominate billionaire businessman Howard Lutnick to be Commerce Department secretary, Trump announced Nov. 19. "He will lead our tariff and trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative," Trump said in a statement.
With just 14 days in session scheduled for the House of Representatives before the end of the year, Ways and Means Committee members are not expressing optimism that a renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program will be one of the items that gets a vote this Congress.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, in its annual report to Congress, said that ending de minimis for all e-commerce is one of its top 10 recommendations, and said that if Congress passes such a law, it should provide CBP adequate resources to implement and enforce the change.
Outgoing Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., last week formally introduced a bill restricting de minimis eligibility for textiles and apparel from anywhere in the world, as well as goods subject to Section 301 tariffs (see 2408020031). The bipartisan bill goes beyond the version that passed the House Ways and Means Committee, in that it adds apparel to the list of restricted items, and it would levy a $2 fee on de minimis packages, to help CBP fund its inspections of the low-value packages. The Biden administration is planning to issue a proposed rule before Jan. 20 that would remove Section 301 goods from de minimis, but it can't add the fee through rulemaking.
In addition to tariff hikes expected in 2025, trade experts are also thinking about the 2026 review of USMCA, and the investment and supply chain planning uncertainty that is likely to follow.
NEW YORK -- The Consumer Product Safety Commission's intent to require information from certificates of compliance to be filed in ACE next year is alarming brokers, according to Erin Williamson, vice president of customs brokerage at GEODIS USA.
Trade attorneys continue to wait and wonder what kind of tariff changes will come next year, with one observer using a tariff slide that said "Tariff Armageddon."