Senators from both parties asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to respond to a Wall Street Journal editorial headlined "Trump Has No China Trade Strategy." Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., when he had a chance to ask Bessent questions, quoted from it that Trump "has used tariffs as an economic scatter-gun against friends as well as foes."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's stay of the Court of International Trade decision vacating all International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariff action likely doesn't signal a win for either side on the merits of the issue, various attorneys told us. In addition, the court's move to set a July 31 oral argument date and have all active judges hear the case indicates a decision will likely be issued in August, the attorneys said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that if 18 major trading partners negotiate in good faith, "it is highly likely ... we will roll the date forward to continue in good faith negotiations." He was referring to the July 9 deadline when country-specific reciprocal tariffs above 10% are due to return.
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U.S. domestic manufacturers voiced lukewarm support for trade action, but unanimous concern about the potential scope of the investigation on Section 232 tariffs on imports of critical minerals, in public comments to the Bureau of Industry and Security.
CBP updated its recent guidance on Section 232 tariffs to remove tariff schedule numbers that had apparently been erroneously included as subject to steel and aluminum tariffs.
Expert witnesses testified that the Harmonized Tariff Schedule code needs to be refined so that different sizes of semiconductor chips have their own numbers, and, more radically, suggested that the best way to mitigate overdependence on China for legacy chips is to require importers to report where the chips were designed and fabricated within products they are importing.
As importers respond to swift changes in the deployment of Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum (see 2506030071), they should continue to follow due diligence protocols for entry filing -- and that means even when CBP's guidance on additional subheadings for Section 232 steel and aluminum duties doesn't fully align with what's in official documents, such as the Federal Register, multiple customs attorneys told International Trade Today.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, after receiving critiques over 10% tariffs on bananas and tariffs on Asian food imports from House Appropriations Committee members, said that countries that sell "unavailable natural resources" like bananas, cocoa, coffee and spices will be allowed to export those goods duty-free, as long as they don't have barriers to U.S. agricultural exports.
Given an increase in Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum (see 2506030071), it may be less costly for importers to no longer take advantage of an exemption from tariffs on autos and auto parts for USMCA goods, according to a tariff expert at supply chain logistics platform Flexport.