With so much uncertainty occurring with U.S. import regulations, companies should develop multiple strategies that address potentially different tariff outcomes, with some strategies being deployed in the short-term and others being deployed further down the road as the geopolitical situation becomes more clear, according to trade experts with professional services firm KPMG.
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.
A former staffer in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during President Donald Trump's first term and a Harvard professor agreed on very little in a debate hosted by The Federalist Society on Trump's tariffs and trade policy.
President Donald Trump thinks that by applying a 25% tariff to auto part imports, domestic parts companies will thrive. But 77% of the nearly 1,000 auto supplier companies that belong to MEMA are pessimistic about the next year for their businesses -- and 55% said that government trade policy is the No. 1 threat to financial health.
An exemption for goods in transit from the reciprocal tariffs that recently took effect applies not only to ocean vessels, but to air and truck shipments as well, according to Jeff McCauley, senior director of operations and compliance at DHL Global Forwarding.
U.S. domestic lumber companies are delighted that President Donald Trump is considering imposing Section 232 tariffs on imports of lumber and its derivative products, but U.S. domestic manufactures expressed concern and foreign countries pleaded for exemptions in public comments to the Bureau of Industry and Security.
The Senate Finance Committee held a confirmation hearing on April 10 for William Kimmitt to serve as undersecretary of commerce for international trade. In this role, Kimmitt would lead the International Trade Administration, the wing of the Commerce Department tasked with enforcing antidumping and countervailing duty laws.
Given the prohibitively high tariff levels placed on China, and the uncertainty surrounding reciprocal tariffs on other countries, USMCA-qualifying goods from Canada and Mexico are advantageous options for importers, according to compliance experts speaking at an Automotive Industry Action Group event on April 9.
Tariff policy has been changing so rapidly that CBP hasn't been able to dot all the i's and cross the t's before entries are subject to the new rules, and that's putting brokers in limbo at times, the customs committee chair for the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America told an audience of brokers at NCBFAA's national conference this week.
The most unwavering defenders of President Donald Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" policy -- including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo. -- were a bit undercut during a four-hour hearing on the president's trade agenda, because Trump reacted to Treasury market volatility and backed down.