The nominee to lead CBP, former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, told the Senate Finance Committee that during high school in Nogales, Arizona, a lot of his friends' parents were customs brokers, so he saw the importance of free-flowing goods across borders.
Tariff rates above 200% essentially function “as an import ban” for some members of the American Apparel and Footwear Association because, at that price point, “companies don’t ship, they don’t import, they don’t make, they don’t buy,” the trade association’s head said on the Trade Guys podcast April 29.
Auto companies are feeling like they're being yanked around with ever-changing tariffs, said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who was a senior public affairs executive at GM before becoming a politician. "Every business, whether small business or large business, needs certainty," she said, but instead, lawyers are scrambling to figure out what the impact is of the changing tariffs. She said she has talked to lawyers every day since this began.
Exemptions from reciprocal tariffs for goods that were in transit on April 5 or 9 only apply to ocean vessels, CBP said in an April 30 update to its FAQ on the tariffs.
New tariff schedule subheadings may be added to the list of derivatives subject to Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs up to three times every year, with the first 60-day “inclusions” process beginning May 1, the Bureau of Industry and Security said in an interim final rule released April 30.
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Automakers who build cars in America and import parts to do so will get a partial credit against the costs of 25% Section 232 tariffs on non-USMCA qualifying parts -- but the Commerce Department will examine companies' projections of both how many cars and light trucks they expect to build in the U.S. between April 3, 2025, and April 30, 2026, and the aggregate value of the MSRP of those vehicles.
A March 2025 CBP ruling has determined that a partial duty exemption in the tarif schedule for U.S.-origin materials exported to a third country for assembly will not apply to certain U.S.-origin crystalline silicon wafers exported to a third country for assembly into solar cells and panels.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a TV interview that "an agreement in principle" can be reached with 17 trading partners to prevent "the tariffs there from ratcheting back to the maximum level."
The Pacific Legal Foundation, the libertarian legal advocacy group that recently brought a case against the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on behalf of 11 importers, has had "preliminary" talks with the other advocacy groups that have brought cases challenging the tariffs on whether to proceed with separate cases. Molly Nixon, attorney at the foundation, told us she's "in touch" with the two other groups who have brought cases against the tariffs, the New Civil Liberties Alliance and the Liberty Justice Center, but that nothing is confirmed about whether the groups will combine cases.