National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said July 13 on ABC's "This Week" that the president is not satisfied with "some sketches of deals that had been negotiated with {Commerce Secretary] Howard Lutnick and the rest of the trade team, and the president thinks that the deals need to be better, and to basically put a line in the sand, he sent these letters out to folks. And we'll see how it works out."
The Court of International Trade on July 10 heard oral argument in importer Detroit Axle's case against President Donald Trump's decision to end the de minimis exemption for Chinese goods. Judges Gary Katzmann, Timothy Reif and Jane Restani pressed counsel for both the U.S. and the importer on whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act enables the president to take such action, given the specific language at play in both IEEPA and 19 U.S.C. 1321, the de minimis statute (Axle of Dearborn, d/b/a Detroit Axle v. Dep't of Commerce, CIT # 25-00091).
It remains unclear how the U.S. will apply a new 30% Aug. 1 tariff rate for Mexico that President Donald Trump announced over the weekend in one of his tariff letters.
The chief negotiator for the EU told reporters in Brussels July 14 that his team had thought "we are very close to an agreement," though there were still "quite large gaps" on what the U.S. was offering and what the EU could accept on goods subject to national security tariffs, such as cars and steel, and, perhaps in the future, pharmaceuticals.
President Donald Trump, in a press conference at the White House July 14, said that Russian President Vladmir Putin should have stopped fighting in Ukraine two months ago, and if he does not stop bombing Ukraine within 50 days, the U.S. will impose "secondary tariffs" of 100%.
The U.S. will increase blanket reciprocal tariff rates for countries that haven’t received a tariff letter to 15% or 20%, President Donald Trump said in a phone interview with NBC News July 10, the broadcast news outlet reported.
President Donald Trump on July 11 appeared to leave open the possibility that USMCA goods will remain exempt from a higher 35% tariff on Canada that he announced the previous day.
The trade negotiation letters that have been coming out of the White House could chill potential dealmaking as countries see the lack of benefit in negotiating with President Donald Trump, according to former senior U.S. trade negotiators speaking during a panel discussion. Unimpressed by the pace and scope of current dealmaking, they argued that the breadth of areas that Trump wants to address with tariff solutions may weaken his ability to get what he wants.
The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America publicized a letter they sent to the administration, pointing out that children's shoes already face high most favored nation duties, and asked officials not to stack a planned 20% tariff on those rates.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Democrats jointly criticized what they called "ongoing trade chaos," and what they called secretive negotiations between the U.S. and countries under threat.