Steel interests, steelworkers and aluminum interests mostly said that 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum should remain for Canadian and Mexican exports even after upcoming USMCA review, with exceptions among some aluminum witnesses and the Mexican steel industry.
Auto industry representatives asked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to let the USMCA autos rule of origin continue -- or to simplify it -- while the United Autoworkers called for "complete rewrite" of the pact next year, including wage floors in all three countries in auto and parts plants and "explicit job security provisions for American workers."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and other major voices of business said Section 232 tariffs applied to Canadian and Mexican goods that meet USMCA eligibility are a clear violation of the pact, and need to end. The business groups, which opened the second day of an Interagency hearing on what the U.S. should prioritize in next year's USMCA review, also emphasized how imports from and exports to Mexico and Canada are essential for domestic manufacturing.
Specialty crop interests testifying at the first of three days of hearings on UMSCA Dec. 3 disagreed on whether duty-free access for Mexican imports should continue, and protectionists' arguments were echoed by Global Trade Watch.
Think tank scholars and lawyers emphasized that Section 232 tariffs on Mexican and Canadian autos, steel, aluminum and lumber are engendering rancor and suspicion, and the uncertainty of future tariffs levels on Mexican and Canadian imports is a silent tax causing businesses to halt investments and expansions.
Thirty House Democrats joined the sponsor who introduced a bill last month to refund reciprocal tariffs paid by small businesses. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., publicized the bill Dec. 1. There is a Senate companion bill.
Three House members introduced a bill called the No Gratuitous Overcharging Ubiquitous Global Exports (No GOUGE) Act, which would punish large companies that set prices higher than the costs directly generated by the tariff (though it also allows additional costs for higher wages). "This applies to final goods, goods assembled in the United States, and to components, and to both imposed and planned tariffs. A baseline price determination period of the average price of a good in the preceding 180 days is established for determining an unreasonably high price," a summary of the bill said.
The lead sponsor in the House on a Russia sanctions and secondary sanctions bill said that negotiations are still ongoing between the two chambers on the final language of the bill.
The Council of the EU, which is made up of government ministers from each EU country, voted last week to eliminate customs duties on industrial products and to grant tariff rate quotas for some seafood and agricultural products. It also voted to extend duty-free treatment for U.S. lobster exports. That tariff treatment had expired in July.
Since the United Kingdom's National Health Service has agreed to pay more for new medicines, the Trump administration is pledging "to exempt U.K.-origin pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical ingredients, and medical technology from Section 232 tariffs and will refrain from targeting U.K. pharmaceutical pricing practices in any future Section 301 investigation for the duration of President [Donald] Trump’s term."