President Donald Trump said in an Aug. 15 tweet that tariffs are leading to great new trade deals. "Our Country was built on Tariffs," he said. "Other Countries should not be allowed to come in and [steal] the wealth of our great U.S.A. No longer!" So far, no new trade deal has been finalized during the Trump administration, though South Korea agreed to steel quotas and a longer period of high tariffs on imported trucks as part of a revised U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). KORUS has not been signed, however. Canada, Mexico and the U.S. have been discussing a new NAFTA for a year; Canada is insistent that the U.S. will not use the leverage of Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs in NAFTA negotiations (see 1804260010).

In a series of tweets before a campaign rally in suburban Columbus, Ohio, and again on Aug. 5, President Donald Trump said tariffs "are working big time," and "foolish people scream" when his government imposes them. He said because of tariffs, America is winning, and China is "doing poorly against us" for the first time, and other countries' economies are hurting, too. Trump's preferred metric, the trade deficit, is still growing, through June and is up 7 percent compared to the first half of 2017. He said China is spending a fortune trying to convince "our politicians to fight me on tariffs."

The White House said that sanctions on Iranian gold and other precious metals, graphite, aluminum, steel, coal and software used in industrial processes, as well as the country's automotive sector, will go into effect Aug. 7. The announcement came Aug. 6, 90 days after the U.S. withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.

The Coalition for a Prosperous America, whose chairman is Donald Trump ally Dan DiMicco, said the president should consider vetoing the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, the group said in a news release. The Senate unanimously last month (see 1807270003) and passed the House of Representatives 402-0 before that (see 1801170012). The MTB "has flown beneath the radar and is a holdover from the past," said DiMicco, who was a trade adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign, and is a former CEO of steel producer Nucor. "At precisely the moment when the president is tackling foreign trade cheating and trying to create leverage, Congress is again engaging in unilateral trade disarmament. This bill fails to consider that many of the products included could be manufactured in the US.”

Rwandan apparel won't be eligible for African Growth and Opportunity Act benefits as of July 31, the White House announced July 30, because Rwanda continues to block imports of used clothing from the West. Some African countries feel that very cheap used clothing has undermined their domestic clothing manufacturers. The imposition of tariffs on Rwandan apparel was first announced in March but did not take effect immediately (see 1803290034).

President Donald Trump both praised Italian products -- saying he owns some of them -- and complained about the more than $30 billion trade in goods deficit with Italy during a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at the White House July 30. Trump said he announced a breakthrough with the president of the European Commission last week, and he said he looks forward to opening new commercial opportunities with Italy "that will reduce our trade deficit substantially and increase our mutual prosperity."

The administration said it will wait for Congress to pass the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, an update to current laws on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States rather than making its own restrictions on Chinese investment in American firms. As part of the Section 301 investigation, the treasury secretary was supposed to make recommendations on restrictions by June 30. President Donald Trump announced June 27, "I have concluded that [FIRRMA] legislation will provide additional tools to combat the predatory investment practices that threaten our critical technology leadership, national security, and future economic prosperity."

President Donald Trump on June 21 announced a new plan to reorganize federal agencies to make them more “responsive and accountable.” Based on recommendations from the Office of Management and Budget, the report proposes to consolidate federal food safety oversight under a new Federal Food Safety Agency in the Agriculture Department, combining the regulatory responsibilities of the Food and Drug Administration and the Food Safety Inspection Service. Years of evolving legislative mandates have led to a “fragmented and illogical” food safety system wherein, for example, “FDA regulates closed-faced meat sandwiches, while FSIS regulates open-faced meat sandwiches.”

A coalition of more than 60 dairy farms, cheese and butter companies and their trade groups cheered the administration's tough talk on Canadian dairy subsidies, but asked "the administration to reconsider its imposition of new tariffs on Mexico in light of that country’s constructive engagement in North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations and the harm that Mexico’s retaliatory tariffs will have on U.S. dairy’s trade with its largest and most reliable market." Dairy exports to Mexico are about $400 million annually, one-quarter of all exports, the coalition's June 26 letter to President Donald Trump said.

A June 20 meeting of President Donald Trump, Republican lawmakers and other administration officials ended without any commitment to kill language in the Senate-passed version of the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5515) that would revise a recently lifted Department of Commerce ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE, said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, and others. The Senate voted 85-10 June 18 to pass H.R. 5515 with the ZTE provision intact, despite Trump's push to weaken the language or kill it completely (see 1806190018). Trump “wanted to make sure the negotiation that [Secretary of Commerce Wilbur] Ross had with the Chinese over the ZTE matter was understood and it was respected, and particularly given the fact the president is negotiating with China over things like North Korea,” Cornyn told reporters. “I think there’s a path forward to address the president’s concerns as well as national security.” Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., a critic of the bid to reinstate the ban, said the meeting ended with participants making “serious strides in solving the ZTE issues.” Trump “should not have his hands tied as he engages in major negotiations dealing with trade and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Perdue said in a statement. That bill gives Commerce discretion on interpreting the timing of ZTE's violations.