International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Jamieson Greer, Trump's pick to be U.S. trade representative, told Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that he will make sure that the appropriateness of the 2.5% tariff on cars is reviewed as part of the sunset review for USMCA. Sanders, the most famous leftist in the Senate, had pointed out in his written questions that 2.5% is not high enough to convince all Mexican exporters to follow USMCA rules of origin.
C.J. Mahoney, who led the U.S. team in renegotiating NAFTA during the first Trump administration, described USMCA as "a modest success so far," that has increased U.S. production of auto engines and transmissions, and increased factory construction in both the U.S. and Mexico.
The Commerce Department will have until May 10 to establish a process for including additional derivative steel and aluminum items to be subject to 25% tariffs -- but importers are still waiting to learn what products have already been added to the list.
In the fourth week of the second Trump administration, businesses awaited the details of what a reciprocal tariff approach could be -- and how fast the tariff schedule could be altered to have a different rate for every product that the U.S. exports to countries at a higher rate than the U.S. most-favored nation rate.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Feb. 10 that will hike tariffs on imported aluminum to 25%, ends quota arrangements with the EU, South Korea and Brazil in steel and aluminum, and curtails both product exclusions and the exemptions for Canada and Mexico.
Even as President Donald Trump talked about his intention to announce tariff changes next week, he expressed confidence that Japan might be spared, because of their promises to buy more American exports.
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters during a Feb. 7 press conference with Japan's Prime Minister, said that he would probably announce, either Monday or Tuesday, Feb. 10 or Feb. 11, "reciprocal tariffs where a country pays so much or charges us so much and we do the same, so very reciprocal because I think that's the only fair way to do it, that way nobody's hurt. They charge us, we charge them."
The reversal of an order banning Chinese products from de minimis startled importers and members of the Senate Finance Committee, who were puzzling about how long it would be until the policy flipped again, and why the Commerce Department, which has never had involvement in de minimis before, has been put in charge of deciding when to implement the order.
The abrupt change in how CBP will process low-value goods made in China because of President Donald Trump's executive order banning the de minimis exemption for these goods (see 2502030034) is causing some upheaval among shippers unfamiliar with the other types of customs processing, importers, brokers and logistics providers told International Trade Today.