U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer declined to mention specific products he'd like to facilitate importing from China following talks between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, but expanded the scope beyond what both he and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had previously said.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the administration will solicit comments on which types of "non-sensitive goods" should get tariff relief, so that trade can be facilitated between the U.S. and China.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking for feedback on the International Trade Commission's recommendation that a tariff rate quota on quartz surface products be applied to slabs and fabricated items, with a 25% in-quota rate and a 40% over-quota rate for the first year of a four-year safeguard. The rates would decline by 1 percentage point each of the next three years.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the Board of Trade that the U.S. has discussed establishing is aimed at identifying $30 billion worth of Chinese imports of "things that the U.S. doesn’t want to make that we’re never going to reshore," and removing the tariffs from those goods. Bessent gave examples of fireworks "or very low-end consumer goods."
Nineteen members of Congress asked the U.S. trade representative to follow through with his announcement that he expects to initiate a Section 301 investigation on seafood, and said that investigation should not be limited to subsidies and unregulated fishing.
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Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Goettman said he doesn't know if his agency will be able to release conclusions from Section 301 investigations on which countries' actions or inactions have burdened U.S. commerce by the end of June, but he said that once the conclusions are released, there will be an opportunity for stakeholders to comment on those conclusions.
A former director of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative responsible for Brazil said President Donald Trump's meeting last week with Brazilian President Luiz Inacia Lula da Silva "went way better" than she expected.
More than 20 companies and associations, and the steelworkers union, representing a wide swath of aluminum and steel value chains, told the Interagency Section 301 Committee that Section 232 tariffs over the last eight years -- which increased to 50% and 25% from 25% and 10% last year -- have not been enough to restore health to their businesses. So, they argued, higher tariffs, or tariffs on more downstream goods, are needed to level the playing field.
In a repeat of the scramble that followed the Supreme Court's February ruling against International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs, trade attorneys are again assessing what options importers have to preserve their refund rights for tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, this time under a different tariff authority.