The annual National Trade Estimate, which enumerates hundreds of tariff and non-tariff barriers to U.S. goods and services exports, asserted it would try to "quantitatively assess the potential effect of removing certain foreign trade barriers to particular U.S. exports," but the estimate largely steers clear of estimating the value of lost export sales.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, on Bloomberg TV, said he expects the establishment of a Board of Trade to manage trade between the U.S. and China to be one of the major deliverables of the May summit planned between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump.
Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, asked the Commerce Department to open an investigation on the national security threat of imports of heavy machinery, such as products made by John Deere and Caterpillar.
CBP said it expects the first phase of its automated refund system for International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs to cover about 63% of entries that paid or deposited the duties. That includes unliquidated entries and entries that will still be in the 90-day window when CBP is able to initiate reliquidation.
The numerous conditions that the European Parliament put on a bill to lower EU tariffs on U.S. goods and to offer preferential access to some American agricultural products intrigued former trade negotiators, though they had conflicting opinions on how much the U.S. would adjust its approach as a result.
A bill that would give the president the authority to prohibit both passenger ships and cargo ships from calling on U.S. ports if they visited the former Vulcan Materials port in Mexico passed the House March 27.
Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., told an audience of libertarians that he argued in a closed-door meeting with other House Ways and Means Democrats that they should campaign on prices, and connect affordability to President Donald Trump's tariffs.
The leading trade hawk appointee in the Trump administration, Peter Navarro, said the loss at the Supreme Court on the legal underpinning of reciprocal tariffs was the best possible kind of loss "because the justices ratified and affirmed the use of every other statute we’ve been using."
Former government officials from the Biden and first Trump administration said they've been pleasantly surprised by how the government is working to comply with a Court of International Trade directive to refund reciprocal tariffs and stop liquidating entries that include those tariffs.
The Senate passed the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (Fish) Act March 22. It would direct the government to develop a strategy to enforce against illegal and unregulated fishing, and for fishing that involves the use of forced labor, including how to better identify vessels involved in the abuses.