Former Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who voted against USMCA because he felt it moved too much in the direction of managed trade, told an audience at a Council on Foreign Relations event Jan. 23 that, despite all of his talk of tariffs, "a lot of folks will be surprised at the extent to which President [Donald] Trump will pursue broad, aggressive tariffs."
The Coalition for a Prosperous America, a think tank aligned with Trump's trade policy, issued a new report on agricultural trade, arguing that policies that aimed to lower U.S. tariffs in exchange for better market access for U.S. agricultural exports almost exclusively benefited soybeans, corn and wheat, while hurting fruit and vegetable farmers and livestock operations.
The chairman of the House Select Committee on China said Jan. 22 that the U.S. should take a harder line against China's aggressive policies on trade, investment and other matters.
President Donald Trump posted that if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't "make a 'deal,' and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries."
Three Senate Democrats have introduced a bill to remove the president's ability to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a companion bill to one introduced in the House, which also only had Democratic sponsors (see 2501160069).
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President Donald Trump railed against the trade stance of the European Union, as he often has, as he talked about tariffs and trade deficits with reporters as he signed executive orders on the first day of his second term.
President Trump, after saying tariff decisions on China would wait until he had talks with that country's president, returned to his previous stance in favor of the tariffs. He made the comments at a White House press conference Jan. 21.
On his first day in office, the president directed the heads of agencies that deal with trade, tariff collection and trade remedies to:
President Donald Trump told reporters that his administration is still thinking of imposing 25% tariffs on both Mexican and Canadian goods "because they're allowing vast numbers of people -- Canada's a very bad abuser also -- vast numbers of people to come in, and fentanyl to come in. I think we'll do it February 1st."