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.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz told commerce deputy secretary nominee Paul Dabbar that, as "an experienced dealmaker," he hopes Dabbar will help to secure "freer and fairer trade with our allies, not across-the-board protectionism" -- and to also argue for that approach.
As CBP has made it clear that it will ramp up efforts to ensure companies and importers are complying with import regulations and all the assorted tariff modifications, the roles of customs brokers and import compliance experts have been elevated within company structures, several trade experts said this week in webinars.
Hogan Lovells lawyers, speaking to an audience from the Massachusetts Export Center, said that conservative Supreme Court justices' desire to curtail executive decision-making through the "major questions doctrine" could put a stop to tariffs on countries around the world levied via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.
U.S. small business importers need a tariff exclusion process to avoid "irreparable harm," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a letter to the secretaries of commerce and the treasury and the U.S. trade representative.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum posted on X on May 1 that she had a very positive conversation with President Donald Trump. In Spanish, she wrote that they agreed that the U.S. treasury and commerce secretaries would continue to work with Mexico's finance and economy ministers on options to improve the trade balance between the two countries and advance outstanding issues.
In a town hall call-in appearance April 30, President Donald Trump said that his administration has “potential” tariff deals negotiated with South Korea, Japan and India, but said they weren’t in a hurry to announce them -- “it can wait two weeks.”
The Senate had a tie vote, 49-49, as it took up the question of revoking the trade deficit emergency President Donald Trump declared, which underpins his decision to put 10% tariffs on every country except Canada, Mexico and China, and 125% on China.
Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican who helped Republicans recapture the House majority in 2022, said Congress will seek to intervene if the administration seeks to re-implement the high country-specific reciprocal tariffs that it had planned but paused for 90 days.