Australian small businesses were given too little time to comply with the U.S. decision to end the de minimis exemption for low-value imports (see 2508280062), said Don Farrell, Australia’s trade minister. Farrell said he raised Australia’s "disappointment" earlier in the week with U.S. Trade Representative General Counsel Jennifer Thornton, adding that the move is mostly hurting “mum and dad operations that have had a successful product going into” the U.S.
The top trade negotiator from Japan canceled his trip to the U.S. this week, which was meant to nail down a reduction in auto tariff rates for Japan, Bloomberg reported. While the overall reciprocal tariff rate is 15% for Japan, the country has not received the 15% rate on autos and auto parts, as agreed to in July, it said.
Mexico has joined other countries in opting to temporarily suspend low-value shipments to the U.S. amid uncertainties over how international carriers must comply with levying duties, according to multiple news reports. It's now one of more than 25 other countries that have stopped low-value shipments to the U.S. and await guidance from CBP on how to proceed (see 2508260026).
More international postal carriers have announced that they are temporarily suspending shipments to the U.S. that would've been eligible for the de minimis exception, according to multiple news sources (see 2508210036).
The Austrian Post, Austria's official mail carrier, confirmed that it will be withholding international mail bound to the U.S. starting Aug. 25 as it and its European carriers seek to comply with regulations related to the end of the de minimis exemption on Aug. 29 (see 2508210036).
Postal operators in Australia and Europe reportedly are halting low-value shipments to the U.S. in response to the end of the de minimis exemption on Aug. 29 (see 2507300046).
The Japanese government will meet with local governments, businesses and industry groups in the Chubu, Kinki and Kyushu-Okinawa regions later this month to discuss U.S. tariffs and the outcome of the trade deal reached between the two countries last month (see 2508080013). Business officials and organizations during these meetings “will hear about the impact of the U.S. tariff measures and how to respond to them, and will also exchange opinions on how to use the U.S. tariffs as an opportunity to create success stories,” Japan’s trade ministry said, according to an unofficial translation. The country plans to speak about the tariffs with local governments and businesses in other regions in September.
Beijing pushed back on the notion that the U.S. is considering secondary tariffs against China for purchasing Russian oil, saying it has a right to buy Russian energy.
The EU on Aug. 5 published a document to officially suspend the retaliatory tariffs it was set to impose on the U.S. on Aug. 7 (see 2507250007) if the two sides hadn’t come to a trade agreement. The U.S. and the EU announced a trade deal last last month (see 2507280027 and 2507280032), and suspending its retaliatory duties will help “ensure effective implementation of the political agreement,” the European Commission said in a document posted to the Official Journal of the EU. “The Commission should keep the suspension under review in light of further developments in the trade relations with the United States, and may take further actions.”
European Commission trade spokesperson Olof Gill, in a briefing in Brussels, said that the U.S. intention to allow some European steel to be imported without facing a 50% tariff will be in the forthcoming joint statement on the trade agreement. He said the work to set up the quota would follow.