Agriculture is one of the few areas in Congress that is still bipartisan, and a desire to roll back tariffs on inputs needed by farmers was mentioned by Democratic and Republican senators recently, though Republicans focused on the 18% trade remedy on Moroccan phosphate, and Democrats were more likely to criticize Section 122 and reciprocal tariffs.
The trade truce between China and the U.S. is more properly thought of as a stalemate, said Mary Lovely, a scholar of the bilateral trade relationship at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
As the interagency committee for Section 301 investigations began four marathon days of testimony from 130 witnesses, the Consumer Technology Association's Ed Brzytwa, vice president of international trade, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has not yet -- and needs to -- put forward "a specific definition of structural excess capacity."
Former U.S. trade negotiators said that Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia don't know how to react to U.S. anger over growing exports to its market.
Vietnam has been named a "priority foreign country" in the annual Special 301 report for intellectual property violations, the first time in 13 years that there has been a category above "priority watch list." The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that it will decide within 30 days whether to initiate a Section 301 investigation, which could lead to higher tariffs.
President Donald Trump on social media said the tariff on European Union cars no longer will be 15%, including a 2.5% most-favored nation rate -- the rate will be 25%. He didn't make it clear whether that's 25% in addition to the 2.5% MFN rate, or 25% all-in. He also didn't say when the change would take effect, beyond saying "next week."
President Donald Trump, in a social media post, said he will remove tariffs on certain imported whisky "in Honor of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom," who visited Washington this week. "I will be removing the Tariffs and Restrictions on Whiskey having to do with Scotland’s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon, two very important Industries within Scotland and Kentucky. People have wanted to do this for a long time, in that there had been great Inter-Country Trade, especially having to do with the Wooden Barrels used. The King and Queen got me to do something that nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking!"
Government officials from Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Indonesia, Vietnam and India, along with a lawyer speaking on behalf of Egypt, said their countries shouldn't face tariffs because the U.S. alleges they are not keeping forced labor out of supply chains.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., asked U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer why his office's overcapacity investigation notice complains that Norway and Malaysia sell too much oil or other fuel products.
The first reciprocal tariff refunds should arrive in bank accounts on May 11 or shortly thereafter, the administration projected, according to a summary of a closed Court of International Trade conference that Judge Richard Eaton posted late April 28.