Gibson Dunn brought a suit to the Court of International Trade on behalf of a small Michigan-based importer, Detroit Axle, to challenge President Donald Trump's revocation of the de minimis threshold for Chinese goods. The complaint, filed on May 16, argues that Trump exceeded his statutory authority in eliminating de minimis for goods from China and acted arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (Axle of Dearborn, d/b/a Detroit Axle v. Dep't of Commerce, CIT # 25-00091).
Five senators, both Republicans and Democrats, asked Jamieson Greer, then the U.S. trade representative nominee, to advocate for a formal exclusion process to tariffs, as was done for the Section 301 tariffs in Trump's first term. These written exchanges were recently posted at the Senate Finance Committee website, long after Greer's confirmation vote.
Section 232 investigations are "moving much, much quicker" in the second Trump administration, trade lawyer Daniel Cannistra said May 14 on a podcast.
While traveling in the Gulf States in the Middle East, President Donald Trump again said that negotiators in his administration don't have time to meet with every country subject to reciprocal tariffs ahead of the 90-day deadline for those tariffs to snap back into place. So, he said, he will be telling some countries what their tariff rates will be in two or three weeks.
CBP has revised the subheadings included on the list of commodities of energy and energy resources of Canada subject to 10% tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act fentanyl emergency to account for input from interagency partners, according to a May 15 cargo systems message.
Although the reciprocal tariff for imported Chinese goods may have fallen to 10% for 90 days (see 2505130074), Flexport trade experts advised companies to not treat this action as if there will be an extension. Doing so will prevent companies from having to ask later whether they will have any in-transit exemptions as the 90-day period ends around Aug. 12, according to Angela Lewis, global head of customs for Flexport.
China this week said it’s temporarily reversing April announcements that added dozens of U.S. companies to the country’s unreliable entity list, which blocked those firms from participating in import and export activities in China, and its export control list, which blocked them from receiving certain dual-use items (see 2504090017 and 2504040024). Beijing will suspend those restrictions for 90 days from May 14, the Ministry of Commerce said, according to unofficial translations.
The EU is prepared to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. aircraft and bourbon to avoid "just being a market for U.S. products," an EU trade official said on May 15.
A reduction in reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods to 10% has not ended the harm to families that need to stock up for new babies, Congress's "Dads Caucus" argued at a press conference May 15.
Trade groups representing three strong exporting sectors -- soybeans, semiconductors and medical devices -- and an expert in critical minerals trade all told the Senate Finance Committee that higher tariffs on all countries and products, and constantly changing tariff policy, aren't good for American competitiveness.