There "very well could be" a trade deal announced this week, President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled back from Florida to Washington on May 4, but he said these won't be tariff negotiations that lead to a signing ceremony, in most cases.
Three former officials at the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration have joined The Bristol Group, the firm announced. Emily Halle, former program manager at ITA, and Andre Gziryan, former senior policy analyst, have joined the firm as senior advisers. In addition, Scarlet Jaldin, former international trade compliance analyst at ITA, joined as an international trade analyst.
Scott McBride, a longtime trade official at the Commerce Department, told us that he has retired from the agency. McBride served at Commerce for about a quarter of a century, initially joining in 2000 as an attorney in the office of the chief counsel for import administration, then working up to associate deputy chief counsel for trade enforcement and compliance -- a position he held since October 2022. McBride said he chose to retire under the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, and that he starts at a private firm on May 5.
As the second Trump administration's tariffs begin to bite, small businesses are more vulnerable to price increases and supply shocks than are large companies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned the Trump administration at an event celebrating its Small Business Day on May 1.
The U.K. has finished gathering public input from industry about the Trump administration’s recent tariff measures (see 2504030057) and is working to “rapidly” analyze the responses “while keeping all options on the table,” the country’s Department for Business and Trade said May 2. It also said possible trade negotiations with the U.S. to remove the tariffs “continue at pace and remain our focus.” The U.K. earlier this year published a list of over 8,000 goods imported from the U.S. that possibly could be hit with retaliatory tariffs.
China is "evaluating" whether to begin trade talks with the U.S. after the Trump administration recently sent messages to Beijing in a bid to start negotiations about recent tariffs imposed by the two nations, China's Ministry of Commerce said May 2, according to an unofficial translation of a portion of a press conference. Senior U.S. officials "have repeatedly expressed their willingness to negotiate with China on tariffs," a ministry spokesperson said. "China is currently evaluating this."
New economic research shows that universal tariffs will not be an effective revenue source for the U.S. government, economists with the Peterson Institute for International Economics said during an event April 30.
The International Trade Commission published notices in the May 2 Federal Register on the following antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):
The International Trade Commission is seeking public input on remedies for its Section 337 investigation on JBS Hair's imported synthetic braiding hair (ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1415), the ITC said in a notice to be published May 5. The ITC initiated the investigation in September 2024 based on allegations that 30 companies are infringing its patented method of pre-stretching synthetic braiding hair in differing lengths to avoid the added time for braiders to pull tease the hair to make it look natural (see 2409060032).
The International Trade Commission has ended a Section 337 investigation on imported computing devices (ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1389), it said in a May 2 Federal Register notice. Complainant X1 Discovery initially alleged in January 2024 that Asus, Acer and Dell desktop and laptop computers copy its technologies (see 2401250041).