Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, after an evening announcement that he would travel to Switzerland to have trade talks with China on May 10 and 11, said that at current levels of tariffs, there's a trade embargo between the two countries.
In more than two hours of House appropriators' questions for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, trade was barely touched on.
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President Donald Trump, ahead of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, denied that his tariff actions against Canada and Mexico have killed USMCA, but also cast doubt on its future. He said USMCA "was a transitional deal" to move away from NAFTA, and said "we'll see what happens" with the renegotiation. He said it could be adjusted, or terminated.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a talk moderated by Mike Milken, a former trader pardoned by President Donald Trump for long-ago securities fraud, said that trade, tax cuts and deregulation are "interlocking parts of an engine designed to drive long-term investment in the American economy."
Four Democratic senators brought small business owners to Congress for a press conference May 5 to condemn harm from President Donald Trump's tariffs and to announce legislation to create a tariff exemption for small businesses.
President Donald Trump, in a social media post, complained that other countries are offering "all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States," and that Hollywood and other U.S. regions "are being devastated." He said this is national security threat. "It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!"
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.
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.