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."
When the House Ways and Means Committee asked all House members for their opinions on what should belong in the tax cut bill the Republicans are shaping, Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., used the opportunity to talk about both taxes and trade.
On his first day in office, the president directed the heads of agencies that deal with trade, tariff collection and trade remedies to:
Two Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee asked Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative nominee Jamieson Greer to "commit to putting in place a transparent and objective process that protects America’s small businesses and workers" if they decide to grant exclusions to new tariffs imposed by Donald Trump.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative concluded that China's intervention in its shipbuilding and logistics sectors -- and its plans for dominance in shipbuilding -- unreasonably burden and restrict U.S. commerce.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a trade strategy to combat forced labor, which includes policy successes during the Biden administration and "areas for potential future action" for the next administration, it announced in a Jan. 13 news release.
Textile industry representatives questioned the logic of the Section 301 investigation on Nicaragua's human rights and labor rights violations, arguing that while they deplore the despotism of Nicaragua's leaders, none of the actions burden or restrict U.S. commerce. Rather, if the government were to decide that Nicaragua's violations merited the withdrawal of tariff benefits for its apparel exports, that action is what would burden U.S. commerce.
Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Calif., who joined the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee in 2021, is the new ranking member, following Rep. Earl Blumenauer's retirement.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Jan. 8 heard oral argument in the massive Section 301 litigation, primarily probing the litigants' positions regarding how to interpret the term "modify" in the statute and whether the statute allows the U.S. trade representative to impose duties in response to retaliatory measures from China (HMTX Industries v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1891).