Recent U.S. trade actions, such as the IEEPA tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives, and the temporarily paused reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries worldwide, could cause global container volumes to slump by 1% in 2025, according to U.K-based maritime shipping advisory firm Drewry.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to answer questions about why he told Wall Street investors that the U.S. is looking to de-escalate the trade war with China, and asked him to confirm if other executives heard information about progress toward a trade deal with India.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked Apple CEO Tim Cook about his private lobbying on tariffs on Chinese imports, and the fact that the carveout for the tariffs for electronics affected phones, computers and smart watches, which Apple makes, but not video game consoles.
In an interview with Time magazine, President Donald Trump said he delayed the country-by-country reciprocal tariff rates in early April not because the bond market was panicking, but because he needed time to come up with rates that they deserve.
Former CBP Executive Director of Trade Relations George Bogden said April 25 that he had "fallen victim to character assassination," and that he was honored "to have played a role in advancing [President Donald Trump's] bold agenda on tariffs and trade."
Amid swirling reports that China is considering exemptions from tariffs on some critical U.S. goods, an industry expert said that these moves should not be read as a broader shift in the trade war between the two countries.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that trade negotiations with South Korea are "moving faster" than expected and that technical details could be available as soon as next week.
The 12 states that recently launched a lawsuit against all tariff action taken by President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act will begin working on a preliminary injunction motion against the tariffs "in the near future," Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield told us. Rayfield was confident in the prospect of being able to show that Oregon and its many public institutions will suffer "irreparable harm" without the injunction and that a judge will be willing to question the validity of Trump's declaration that bilateral trade deficits amount to an "unusual and extraordinary" threat.
Domestic and foreign automakers, auto dealers and MEMA, the suppliers' association, asked the treasury secretary, commerce secretary and U.S. trade representative to rescind the planned 25% tariff on auto parts, which is now planned for early May under a Section 232 national security action.
Comments from President Donald Trump and from a private talk by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on April 22 gave importers hope that the triple-digit tariffs on Chinese imports will drop soon. But Bessent, speaking to Bloomberg after a speech on April 23 at the Institute of International Finance, said there is no plan for the U.S. to drop its tariffs unilaterally, and that there is no timeline for engagement with China.