A new report from Rethink Trade, an anti-corporate trade nonprofit, says that while the USMCA's Rapid Response mechanism has helped tens of thousands of workers in Mexico, unions and Rethink Trade will push for changes to the mechanism in the USMCA review.
President Donald Trump posted on social media that he is going to impose a 100% tariff on "any and all movies that are made outside of the United States," a repeat of a declaration he made on social media in May but didn't follow through on (see 2505050003). In the earlier post, he called foreign filming a national security threat, but in this one, he gave no clue what authority he would use.
Days after President Donald Trump said 30% tariffs on upholstered furniture were starting Oct. 1, he wrote on social media, "In order to make North Carolina, which has completely lost its furniture business to China, and other Countries, GREAT again, I will be imposing substantial Tariffs on any Country that does not make its furniture in the United States. Details to follow!!! President DJT"
The Department of Homeland Security posted a revised shutdown contingency plan over the weekend, and, although the plan says that responding to correspondence, long-term project management and developing products for programs that are in the works are not to happen during a shutdown, the only offices in CBP that are mentioned as having non-essential workers are the Office of the Chief Counsel and those who work in labor relations.
Olof Gill, a spokesman for the European Commission, told reporters in Brussels that the top trade negotiator for the EU, Maros Sefcovic, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were meeting Sept. 25 to talk about the EU's proposal to allow historical levels of steel exports under a tariff rate quota system. Such a system was in place during the Biden administration.
The scope of the products covered by 100% U.S. tariffs on "patented and branded medicines" is unclear, though both the EU and Japan will only be hit with 15% tariffs, a White House official told several news outlets.
After China fought the U.S. to a draw, by throttling exports of rare earth magnets so that the U.S. dropped tariff levels and some export controls, former government officials, researchers and a businessman talked about what might come next.
President Donald Trump said he and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would talk about changing Turkey's tariff treatment in their meeting Sept. 25, but after the two-hour meeting ended, there was no announcement on adjusting the scope of Turkey's 15% reciprocal tariffs, or Section 232 tariffs on steel.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., released a letter she sent Sept. 24 to Rolex CEO Jean-Frederic Dufour, asking him whether he used Rolex's luxury box at the U.S. Open Tennis Championship as a venue to lobby President Donald Trump and his staff about exempting luxury watches from 39% reciprocal tariffs on Swiss exports.
The Commerce Department launched an investigation on Sept. 2 on the import of industrial machinery and robotics, and whether domestic producers should be protected in order to improve U.S. national security.