President Donald Trump's decision to eliminate the duty-free de minimis threshold for goods from China, issued as part of his 10% tariff hike on Chinese products, likely will face legal challenges due to the economic importance of the de minimis rule, customs attorney Lawrence Friedman told us. However, many questions remain on the precise scope of any resulting change, along with the legal theory underpinning it.
Expect upheaval as companies that previously imported goods from China under the de minimis exemption face President Donald Trump's ban via executive order on using de minimis for those goods, members of the trade community told International Trade Today.
Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to President Donald Trump who was known as a China hawk when he served in the president's first administration, said the Commerce Department will be conducting Section 232 investigations on how the steel and aluminum actions should be adjusted, and how imports of critical minerals and essential medicines "are harming [our] ability to produce" those goods.
After President Donald Trump announced his sweeping tariff action on China under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as well as now-delayed IEEPA tariffs on Mexico and Canada, trade lawyers told us to expect the duties to be challenged in court. Matt Nicely, lead counsel in the ongoing case against tariffs imposed on China during Trump's first administration, said in an email that a legal challenge is coming, a sentiment echoed across the trade bar.
After pulling back for the moment on threatened 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, China is the only country facing imminent tariffs over fentanyl smuggling. The 10% tariffs will be added to most favored nation duties or, for goods subject to Section 301 duties of either 25% or 7.5%, to those duties and the underlying MFN rates.
The U.S. will delay its recently announced tariffs on Canada for “at least 30 days,” after President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reached a deal, said Trudeau in a tweet Feb. 3.
Tariffs will be delayed on Canada, President Donald Trump decided about eight hours before the deadline, and hours after he announced Mexico wouldn't face tariffs for the next month. He also granted Canada 30 days to convince him to keep duty-free trade flowing.
President Donald Trump posted on social media that he is holding off on imposing tariffs on Mexico for a month. "I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico. It was a very friendly conversation wherein she agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States," he wrote. "These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country. We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico."
President Donald Trump signed on Feb. 1 an executive order setting a 25% tariff on most goods from Canada, but a 10% tariff on "energy goods." The emailed order says the tariffs will apply beginning 12:01 a.m. ET on Feb. 4, though goods in transit as of 12:01 a.m. ET on Feb. 1 will not be subject to the duties.
Hours after releasing an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on Canadian goods and a 10% tariff on energy goods from Canada, two additional orders came from the White House on Feb. 1: one setting a 10% tariff on goods from China and the other a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico.