Republicans are not exactly turning against the dramatic tariff actions President Donald Trump is taking, but some are expressing hope that the reciprocal tariffs will be temporary cudgels to liberalize trade, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, acknowledged that the free trade advocates in the Republican Party may not be right about that being where this is heading.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a lawsuit on behalf of paper importer Emily Ley Paper, doing business as Simplified, on April 3 challenging President Donald Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose 20% tariffs on all goods from China. Filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Simplified laid out three constitutional and statutory claims against the use of IEEPA to impose tariffs and one claim that the tariffs violate the Administrative Procedure Act for unlawfully modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (Emily Ley Paper, doing business as Simplified v. Donald J. Trump, N.D. Fla. # 3:25-00464).
With the White House announcing this week the end of the de minimis exemption for goods made in China starting next month, the U.S. will need to have the customs and trade infrastructure in place to handle significantly higher volumes of formal and informal entries, said Bernie Hart, vice president of customs for logistics provider Flexport.
The White House released a pre-publication copy of President Donald Trump’s executive order on reciprocal tariffs, with Annex III to the order detailing Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings that will be used for the tariffs that take effect at 12:01 a.m. on April 5 and on April 9.
The White House quietly released Annex III to President Donald Trump’s executive order on reciprocal tariffs yesterday, detailing Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings that will be used for the tariffs that take effect at 12:01 a.m. April 5 and April 9.
Trade groups mostly reacted in alarm to the dramatic change in tariffs with every country that is coming this month, whether because of expected retaliation against their exports or, in the case of sectors that are largely supplied by imports, the increase in costs.
Members of Congress didn't split wholly along party lines in praising or panning the dramatic increase in global tariffs coming in the next week.
President Donald Trump, on his flight to Florida on April 3, told reporters on the plane that "we put ourselves in the driver's seat" with the global tariff announcements, and now, "every country is calling us."
Multiple countries this week objected to President Donald Trump’s April 2 announcement of new reciprocal tariffs against trading partners (see 2504020072), saying they either plan to retaliate or are assessing how to respond.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., introduced a bill that would have future sections 232, 301 and 338 or International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs expire after 60 days unless Congress were to approve the tariffs imposed by the president.