President Donald Trump exaggerated the death toll of fentanyl overdoses while discussing tariffs at a White House Cabinet meeting Feb. 26, and said, "I'm going to be very hard to satisfy" on whether Mexico and Canada have done enough to stop fentanyl smuggling at their respective borders.
President Donald Trump directed the Commerce Department to launch a Section 232 investigation on copper and copper products, which will cover the effect of imports of copper, copper concentrates, refined copper, copper alloys, scrap copper and copper derivative products on national security -- specifically, how they affect domestic copper mining, smelting and refining. The investigation is not limited to those categories; as the order says, it should look at "imports of copper in all forms."
The Alliance for Chemical Distribution asked the Trump administration to support a renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program in Congress. The GSP program has been expired for more than four years.
The U.S. government is considering charging fees ranging from $500,000 to $1.5 million each time a ship docks at a U.S. port, with higher fees charged when Chinese vessels enter; South Korean or Japanese-built ships wouldn't avoid the fees, however, as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative seems to have taken earlier criticisms into account that global shipping companies would own just as many Chinese ships but use them at other destinations.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is inviting comments on unfair trade practices, which could be policies that undermine U.S. production or reduce U.S. exports to that country.
A bipartisan bill introduced by members of the House Ways and Means Committee would make changes to the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act to facilitate trade in coins and medals. The bill, led by Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, would have importers or buyers decare under oath that coins and medals were lawfully exported from the country where they were acquired, and the purchase was lawful, and that they aren't known to be "the direct product of illicit excavations" abroad after restrictions on exporting goods of this type were imposed.
Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser who returned for President Donald Trump's second term, told reporters at the White House on Feb. 21 that he and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had just met with top Mexican officials about fentanyl and about reciprocal trade.
A dairy exporters trade group and a former USMCA negotiator say the state-to-state dispute panels under the NAFTA replacement are only a partial success.
Improving trade for U.S. cars in Europe is "clearly the priority" for American trade negotiators, according to European Union Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, who had a four-hour meeting Feb. 19 with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, U.S. trade representative nominee Jamieson Greer and Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council.
President Donald Trump said that he will "probably" say more about the scope of tariffs on cars "on April 2, but it'll be in the neighborhood of 25%," in response to a question at a press conference Feb. 18.