Trump pursues new import taxes
- President Donald Trump’s trade office opened hearings this week to convert temporary import taxes into longer-lasting tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down his earlier levies. - The stopgap tariffs were imposed under Section 122 and can last only 150 days, pushing U.S. officials toward Section 301 investigations instead. - Greer also told Mexico USMCA talks will not erase steel and auto tariffs, extending trade pressure. (apnews.com)
President Donald Trump’s trade office is opening hearings to replace temporary import taxes with tariffs that can survive longer in court. (apnews.com) The push follows a February Supreme Court ruling that struck down the tariffs Trump had imposed under emergency powers. The administration then switched to temporary levies under Section 122, a law that limits them to 150 days unless Congress extends them. (apnews.com) Now the Office of the United States Trade Representative is leaning on Section 301 investigations, which can support broader and more durable tariffs after hearings and formal findings. USTR listed new hearings on April 24 tied to forced labor and manufacturing overcapacity cases. (ustr.gov) (apnews.com) That change matters because Section 122 is a short bridge, not a permanent trade wall. Section 301 and Section 232 give the White House sturdier legal hooks to keep tariffs in place and use them in negotiations. (apnews.com) (whitehouse.gov) Trump has already kept expanding Section 232 tariffs on national-security grounds. A White House fact sheet on April 2 said some steel, aluminum and copper products would face tariffs as high as 50%, with many derivative goods taxed at 25%. (whitehouse.gov) The administration is also signaling that North American trade talks will not bring back the old zero-tariff model. USTR Jamieson Greer and Mexico’s Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said on April 20 that the first official bilateral USMCA review round will start the week of May 25 in Mexico City. (ustr.gov) In meetings in Mexico City, Greer told Mexican auto and steel groups they should not expect the USMCA review to remove Trump’s tariffs on their sectors, according to Reuters. Ebrard said a return to a tariff-free era should not be assumed. (usnews.com) (finance.yahoo.com) Importers are already dealing with the fallout from the court fight. The administration began a refund process for businesses that paid the invalidated tariffs, with AP reporting the total at about $166 billion. (apnews.com) The result is a trade policy that is less about one-off emergency actions and more about building tariffs into the regular machinery of U.S. economic diplomacy. With the temporary levies set to expire within months, the hearings now underway will shape what replaces them. (apnews.com)
