The Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bill to increase funding for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative by $6 million, more than 10%, and to increase funding for the Bureau of Industry and Security, which handles Section 232 action, by $20 million -- almost 10%.
A former Mexican trade negotiator and deputy foreign affairs minister and two think-tank analysts agreed that it would have made sense for Mexico to capture more manufacturing, leaving China in the wake of President Donald Trump's initial trade war, but they said that if Mexico changes course on its energy policy and effectively tackles cargo theft, it could garner more investment.
Trade restrictions in pending Section 232 investigations for copper, lumber, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, heavy-duty trucks, commercial aircraft and engines, polysilicon and drones are a foregone conclusion, but "exactly what those trade measures will look like" has not been decided, Steptoe's Jeff Weiss said during a firm webinar.
Trade observers are waiting for more information about whether Aug. 1 tariffs on Canada and Mexico will include goods that currently qualify for duty-free treatment under USMCA, according to comments by Flexport officials during a July 16 webinar.
CBP provides guidance on applying Section 232 auto tariffs (see 2504020081) on non-U.S. content for imports of passenger vehicles and light trucks that also qualify for preferential tariff treatment under USMCA (see 2505190061), in a July 16 cargo systems message.
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."
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 Commerce Department is launching a pair of Section 232 investigations into imports of drones and polysilicon from China, according to notices released July 14. Comments are due on Aug. 6 for polysilicon and its derivatives and for drones and their parts.
The chief negotiator for the EU told reporters in Brussels July 14 that his team had thought "we are very close to an agreement," though there were still "quite large gaps" on what the U.S. was offering and what the EU could accept on goods subject to national security tariffs, such as cars and steel, and, perhaps in the future, pharmaceuticals.