Former top trade negotiator Wendy Cutler, who, as a career employee in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative led on the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said that South Korea can't make concessions to avoid 25% tariffs on its exports if the 25% Section 232 tariffs on autos and 50% tariffs on steel go unchanged in the deal.
President Donald Trump, after returning from a political event in Pennsylvania the evening of July 15, told reporters that Section 232 tariffs on pharmaceuticals will start "probably at the end of the month, and we're going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, and then we're going to make it a very high tariff, because we gotta move them here."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Chamber of Commerce in Brazil both are urging the Brazilian government and the U.S. government to negotiate so that 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods don't come to pass.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., co-sponsors of the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, which authorizes 500% tariffs on buyers of Russian energy products, praised President Donald Trump for his promise of 100% tariffs on products from countries buying Russian goods, if Russia doesn't stop its war in Ukraine.
Witnesses at a July 15 House hearing called for tariff measures to reduce Chinese dominance of critical mineral supply chains, with former Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., saying that tariffs on China were necessary to "protect strategic industries by penalizing bad actors and keeping the U.S. prices competitive."
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 7-13:
DOJ's criminal division has identified trade fraud as a top priority, assigning its market integrity and major frauds unit to handle tariff evasion cases, a DOJ official confirmed to us. The official said that the major frauds unit is shifting resources to trade and looking to cases involving "long-running frauds, senior executives, and large volumes of alleged losses from unlawful tariff evasion schemes."
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.
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said that Indonesian goods will face a 19% tariff as part of a deal he previewed on social media earlier in the day. That is much lower than the 32% he had threatened in a recent letter. He also said U.S. goods will face no tariffs in Indonesia.
President Donald Trump said the trade deal he and Indonesia's president reached will provide U.S. exporters "full access," access exporters never had.