Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the leading Republican for a secondary tariffs bill supported by 85 senators, said that he talked to President Donald Trump on Sept. 11 about "moving forward" with secondary tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil and gas. He said he was encouraging him to look upon the Russia sanctions bill as something that would help him, "basically, giving him the authority to do what he's doing, which would help him in court."
Two Republican senators took to the Senate floor this week to reiterate their support for increasing sanctions on Russia to pressure it to end its war against Ukraine.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
White House trade official Peter Navarro will need to be sidelined for a trade deal between the U.S. and India to emerge, according to Mark Linscott, a former assistant U.S. trade representative for South and Central Asia. Navarro's comments about India have inflamed the conflict, Linscott said, and have made trade negotiations more difficult.
The Treasury Department will refund tariffs imposed through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act if the government loses its case at the Supreme Court, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
Democrats in the Senate are arguing that it's time to pass a bipartisan bill that would authorize up to 500% tariffs on goods from countries that buy Russian oil and gas and aren't providing aid to Ukraine to defend itself.
President Donald Trump touted the secondary tariffs on India, the second-largest purchaser of Russian oil, as action to show his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin's continued aggression, when asked by a Polish reporter why he hadn't taken action against Russia to stop the war.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Aug. 29 said President Donald Trump exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by imposing the reciprocal tariffs and tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico to combat the flow of fentanyl. Declining to address whether IEEPA categorically provides for tariffs, though spilling much ink on the topic, a majority of the court held that IEEPA doesn't confer unbounded tariff authority (V.O.S. Selections v. Donald J. Trump, Fed. Cir. #s 25-1812, -1813).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is renewing a general license that authorizes certain imports of Russian non-industrial, unsorted diamonds that were substantially transformed outside of Russia. General License 104A, which replaces 104, authorizes those imports as long as the diamonds were located outside of Russia on March 1, 2024, for diamonds weighing 1 carat or more, and Sept. 1, 2024, if they weigh more than 0.5 carats but less than 1 carat. The license was set to expire Sept. 1 (see 2408230043), but it now expires on that date in 2026.
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website Aug. 25, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.