A proclamation issued by President Donald Trump April 2 creates a new "de minimis" exemption from Section 232 metals tariffs for some metal derivatives that contain less than 15% of Section 232 metal content by weight. The proclamation was issued alongside an executive order setting Section 232 tariffs on brand-name pharmaceuticals at 100%, though with exceptions for companies that onshore production.
President Donald Trump signed a series of executive actions Apr. 2 to set Section 232 tariffs on pharmaceutical products and charge a flat 25% rate for steel, aluminum and copper derivative products. The pharmaceutical tariffs will be set at 100% for patented drugs from companies without "most favored nation" drug pricing deals, though that rate may be reduced to 20% for companies that reshore their production to the U.S.
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.
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.
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 Court of International Trade on March 20 broadened its order requiring CBP to begin paying refunds for tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for non-finally liquidated entries to include additional tariffs imposed on Brazil and India. Previously, the order was limited to the IEEPA tariffs at issue in the cases before the Supreme Court, which only included the reciprocal tariffs and tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico (Atmus Filtration v. United States, CIT # 26-01259).
The Court of International Trade on March 20 amended its order requiring CBP to begin paying refunds for tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to include refunds of IEEPA tariffs imposed on Brazil and India that came on top of reciprocal tariffs for those two countries. Previously, the order only covered the tariffs at issue in the lead tariffs case before the Supreme Court, namely reciprocal tariffs and IEEPA tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. However, Judge Richard Eaton continued his pause of the order "to the extent that it requires immediate compliance," also ordering CBP to file a report on March 31 discussing the progress it has made towards standing up an administrative refund process.
CBP is making some progress on the development of its automated reciprocal tariff refund process, though with gains of only a few percentage points from its initial status update last week, according to a March 19 status update to the Court of International Trade.