America First Trade Policy
While there was anticipation President Trump would order additional tariffs on his first day in office, he instead issued a memorandum to multiple federal government departments to analyze current trade scenarios and all actions the U.S. can take to rectify perceived harms. Findings on most orders are to be reported by April 1, 2025.
In summary, the memorandum includes the following:
- USMCA – Initiate the public consultation process now to prepare for the USMCA review scheduled for July 2026.
- FTAs – Determine if existing trade agreements have a general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions.
- Currency – Assess other countries’ exchange rate practices for manipulation or other issues.
- AD/CVD – Assess whether antidumping and countervailing duty regulations sufficiently induce compliance by foreign companies and countries.
- Section 321 – Determine loss of revenue and risk of counterfeit products and contraband drugs due to the duty-free de minimis (Section 321) exemption process.
- Steel and aluminum – Consider effectiveness of exclusions, exemptions, and other import adjustment measures.
- Trade with China – Review current Section 301 duties and consider additional actions, evaluate possible discriminatory practices by China, consider China’s status under Permanent Normal Trade Relations, and threats to intellectual property rights.
- Migration and fentanyl flows – Identify flows from Canada, Mexico, PRC, and any other relevant jurisdiction.
- External Revenue Service – Recommendations for the creation of an External Revenue Service to collect tariffs, duties, and other foreign trade-related revenues.
- Exports – Evaluate export controls, particularly for strategic goods, software, services, and technology.
It is unknown when additional tariffs will be assessed. Based on the timeline for when reports are due, it may be several months before they are assessed. However, Trump could still make moves to issue Executive Orders to quickly issue some tariffs to take effect sooner. For example, he hinted at assessing 25% on products from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on top of pre-existing penalty duties on products from China, both potentially effective February 1, 2025, however neither has been mandated as of this publication.
Schenker will continue to monitor this critical area and communicate developments as they occur. Please reach out to your Schenker contact if you have questions.