U.S. retailers will move their supply chains out of Africa and into Asia should Congress not renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act or change the third-country fabric provision for the region, according to trade groups representing domestic U.S. apparel retailers.
Trade restrictions in pending Section 232 investigations for copper, lumber, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, heavy-duty trucks, commercial aircraft and engines, polysilicon and drones are a foregone conclusion, but "exactly what those trade measures will look like" has not been decided, Steptoe's Jeff Weiss said during a firm webinar.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative launched a Section 301 investigation on Brazilian policies that discriminate against American firms, naming these issues:
Former top trade negotiator Wendy Cutler, who, as a career employee in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative led on the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said that South Korea can't make concessions to avoid 25% tariffs on its exports if the 25% Section 232 tariffs on autos and 50% tariffs on steel go unchanged in the deal.
President Donald Trump, after returning from a political event in Pennsylvania the evening of July 15, told reporters that Section 232 tariffs on pharmaceuticals will start "probably at the end of the month, and we're going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, and then we're going to make it a very high tariff, because we gotta move them here."
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President Donald Trump said the trade deal he and Indonesia's president reached will provide U.S. exporters "full access," access exporters never had.
It remains unclear how the U.S. will apply a new 30% Aug. 1 tariff rate for Mexico that President Donald Trump announced over the weekend in one of his tariff letters.
The Commerce Department is launching a pair of Section 232 investigations into imports of drones and polysilicon from China, according to notices released July 14. Comments are due on Aug. 6 for polysilicon and its derivatives and for drones and their parts.
Suspension of liquidation and antidumping duty cash deposit requirements take effect July 14 for imports of fresh tomatoes from Mexico (A-201-820), after the Commerce Department withdrew from the latest in a series of agreements suspending the duties since 1996.