CBP plans to double down on implementing President Donald Trump's America First trade policy, according to federal officials speaking during the quarterly meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, held in Atlanta on March 5.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the president asked her to tell reporters that after he spoke with Detroit's Big Three automakers: "We are going to give a one-month exemption on any autos coming through USMCA. Reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect on April 2, but at the request of the companies associated with USMCA, the president is giving them an exemption for one month, so they are not at an economic disadvantage."
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, when asked by a Bloomberg TV reporter if tariffs will be hiked on April 2, or if a process begins then, said "some tariffs will come on right away," while others could take three weeks, four weeks, or two months, depending on which law is being used.
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Going from zero tariffs on most Canadian and Mexican imports to 25% convulsed Capitol Hill and foreign capitals, with some Republicans diverging from the president's protectionist message and Democrats universally using the action to attack Trump as the reason prices will go up.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking on the Sunday CBS program "Face the Nation," said March 2 that "the big tariff program," or reciprocal tariffs, will be outlined on April 2. That report is going to show what other countries' tariffs are on specific goods, what non-tariff barriers have been identified, and what kind of currency manipulation, financing interventions or "labor manipulation" distorts international trade.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, blocked his effort to pass a bill through the Senate unanimously that would require Congress to approve tariffs imposed on free-trade partners like Mexico and Canada, or on NATO and major non-NATO allies.
President Donald Trump said he's "very receptive" to reaching a trade deal with the United Kingdom that would mean hiking tariffs on the U.K. wouldn't be necessary. Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a joint press conference after their meeting Feb. 27, which Starmer opened by emphasizing that trade is fair and balanced between the two countries.
WilmerHale International Trade Practice leader David Ross told panelists on a discussion of reciprocal trade that, "contrary to some earlier expectations, there are indications that the president is not planning to do a line-by-line" tariff adjustment to match tariff levels of trading partners, but, rather, to seek to quantify the costs of higher tariffs and other policies he sees as trade barriers, and to put a single tariff rate on the country's products.
President Donald Trump, perhaps seeking to clarify remarks he made in the Oval Office the previous day (2502260032), posted in the morning Feb. 27 that the fentanyl-related tariffs "scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled."