President-elect Donald Trump tweeted a threat on Nov. 30 that he had earlier made on the campaign trail -- that he will impose 100% tariffs on exports from countries who try to create a workaround to trading in dollars, the world's reserve currency.
If President Trump were to impose 25% tariffs on all Mexican and Canadian imports, because he believes those countries are not doing enough to stop migration and drug trafficking, no industry would be hurt more than the auto industry.
The former chief of staff to then-U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been chosen for USTR in Donald Trump's second administration.
The exclusion process for Section 301 tariffs was understandable in one regard -- requests for goods linked to China's technology supremacy strategy known as Made in China 2025 were less likely to be successful.
A free-trade senator shrugged off President-elect Donald Trump's promise to put 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican goods, Canadian politicians scurried to convince Trump it can satisfy his demands, and Mexico's president alternately scolded and offered cooperation to the president-elect.
More than 30 organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, asked House and Senate leadership to hold a vote on the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program during the lame duck session next month.
President-elect Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary nominee, hedge fund CEO Scott Bessent, has talked about tariffs as a way to "escalate to de-escalate," with the goal of "getting rid of all the tariffs."
President-elect Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he will impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican and Canadian goods through an executive order on Jan. 20, and the tariff will stay "until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this longtime problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and, until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!"
As the leaders of some Canadian provinces have said their country should cut its own deal with the incoming Trump administration because Mexico hasn't aligned with the U.S. to keep Chinese electric vehicles out of its market, the new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters that it's nothing to worry about.
Although some trade attorneys have been worrying that a Trump administration will discourage a Republican Congress from bringing back Generalized System of Preferences program tariff breaks for developing countries, members of the House Ways and Means Committee did not endorse that point of view.