Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., joined by two moderate Republicans, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and other Democrats, introduced a bill this week that would exempt small businesses from paying tariffs levied on Canada under the fentanyl emergency. Small businesses are defined by the Small Business Administration, based on either average employment or recent annual revenues, and some manufacturers can have as many as 1,500 employees. Small retailers, depending on the sector, may qualify with annual revenues at or below $9 million to $47 million.
President Donald Trump, speaking at an event on artificial intelligence July 23, told the audience that for countries that are smaller trading partners, there will be a tariff imposed on their goods between 15% and 50%.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., a lead sponsor of the Prevent Tariff Abuse Act, has convinced 71 other Democrats to join her in clarifying that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn't give a president the ability to impose quotas, tariff rate quotas or tariffs on imports.
Although a majority of the Senate voted to end the underlying emergency that allowed the president to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, a vote was blocked in the House.
At a reception for lawmakers, President Donald Trump complained that Ozempic costs almost $1,300 in the U.S., and only $88 in England, and that countries with price controls on prescription drugs must change their policies.
Two of the lead negotiators in the Cabinet -- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent -- avoided directly answering an interviewer's question about whether 15% is the lowest reciprocal tariff rate trading partners like Taiwan, the EU and South Korea can receive.
President Donald Trump reached a deal with Japan, which reduces 25% tariffs on cars to 15% -- including the 2.5% MFN rate -- with no quota on imports, according to a poster shared by a White House official on X, and a clarification about the details of the car arrangement from Japan's prime minister.
The White House says that imports from Japan will be subject to a baseline 15% tariff rate, in a fact sheet published July 23, the day after the president heralded the deal on Truth Social.
A joint statement from Indonesia and the U.S. sheds more light on what the president might have meant when he wrote "if there is any Transshipment from a higher Tariff Country, then that Tariff will be added on to the Tariff that Indonesia is paying."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Fox Business said the administration is "about to announce a rash of trade deals in the coming days."