The chaotic situation that importers and customs brokers have been facing as tariff policy swings wildly from one extreme to the next is partially due to the fact that CBP is unable to influence policy in the Trump administration, Pete Mento, director of customs and international trade at DSV, said on May 8. Decisions about tariffs are made without expert insight into how their actual implementation will affect the broader trade community, he said.
A U.S.-U.K. trade deal announced in the Oval Office leaves the average tariff on U.K. goods at 10%; however, aerospace engines and parts will enter duty-free.
President Donald Trump, responding to a reporter's quote from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the administration is considering tariff exemptions for car seats from China [see Ref:2505060052]), said he doesn't know if he wants to do that.
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.
Both the Japanese government and Japanese reporters' coverage of Japan's more than two-hour talk with the U.S. trade representative, commerce secretary and treasury secretary describe politicians who are not in a hurry to settle to avoid 24% tariffs under the reciprocal tariff plan that is scheduled to take effect in early July.
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.
Former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who served in that role in President Donald Trump's first term, told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations that he thinks "there’s a reasonable chance the CIT would enjoin" tariffs levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Trump used IEEPA to levy 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico over fentanyl and migration, as well as 20% tariffs on China over fentanyl, and used it to levy 10% tariffs on countries other than those three, and an additional 125% tariffs on Chinese goods.
In its annual report on how foreign countries honor intellectual property protections, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative added Mexico to its Priority Watch List of the worst offenders, while Argentina, China, India, Indonesia, Chile, Russia and Venezuela remain on the list from last year.
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.
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.