In a budget justification document, the Commerce Department refers to a Section 232 investigation that has not been publicly launched on power generation equipment, which it described in another place as "the power grid." The document also refers to the existing 232 investigation on wind turbines in another spot, which is one form of power generation equipment. Unnamed sources had told The Wall Street Journal in February that electrical grid equipment could be a target (see 2602240088).
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Trade groups representing a wide swath of businesses accused the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative of using Section 301 to reverse-engineer the global tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court.
A former Trump National Economic Council trade expert, Kate Kalutkiewicz, said the changes to the Section 232 derivatives methodology "does reflect an acknowledgment by the administration that there was a lot of confusion by importers around how they were supposed to calculate the value of steel, aluminum or copper in a good and apply a tariff. Customs, I think, was also struggling to come up with formulas that made sense here."
When a Republican House member asked U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer how he "is working to provide greater clarity around tariff and trade policy so small businesses have the confidence they need to plan, and invest and expand," he replied that avoiding imports guarantees avoiding tariffs.
Trade groups representing the entire domestic auto industry said they don't want major changes to rules of origin in a USMCA rewrite, and said that imposing 25% tariffs on formerly duty-free Canadian and Mexican cars undermines the trade pact. The Commerce Department said more than a year ago that it would impose 25% tariffs on USMCA-compliant auto and truck parts, once it could identify how much of the value was not domestic, but has never implemented that part of the Section 232 action.
Former senior trade officials clashed over the Trump administration’s escalating tariff actions, debating whether rapid‑fire proclamations, shifting authorities and overlapping investigations are creating needed leverage or leaving companies struggling to manage supply-chain uncertainty.
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.
SAN ANTONIO -- Even after the Trump administration overhauled Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper in a proclamation earlier this month, several lawyers at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America annual conference said they still expect audits applying the prior framework on old entries, and the question of whether iron is covered has been left unanswered.
A former career economics researcher in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and a former deputy director of the National Economic Council in the first Trump term agree that two recently announced Section 301 investigations are likely aimed at replicating previously imposed reciprocal tariff rates, whether those were 10%, 15% or 20%.