The Commerce Department is launching a pair of Section 232 investigations into imports of drones and polysilicon from China, according to notices released July 14. Comments are due on Aug. 6 for polysilicon and its derivatives and for drones and their parts.
The chief negotiator for the EU told reporters in Brussels July 14 that his team had thought "we are very close to an agreement," though there were still "quite large gaps" on what the U.S. was offering and what the EU could accept on goods subject to national security tariffs, such as cars and steel, and, perhaps in the future, pharmaceuticals.
The head of the trade committee in the EU parliament said one of the sticking points in the negotiations with the U.S. is whether 50% tariffs on steel and 25% tariffs on cars and car parts continue to be collected as the two parties move from an agreement in principle to a detailed agreement.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC July 8 that the Section 232 investigation and report on copper undertaken by his department is finished, and has been sent to the president, and that the proclamation will be issued within a day or two. He said a 50% tariff on copper-- the same as for aluminum and steel -- is "likely to be put into place the end of July, maybe August 1."
Georgetown Law professor Jennifer Hillman, a former International Trade Commissioner and a former general counsel in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, predicted that the Supreme Court may make a decision on the legality of reciprocal tariffs and other tariffs imposed via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Hillman, who was speaking on a July 8 webinar about tariffs hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, has been helping challengers to those tariffs, and she said there's "a very good chance that the legal challenges will at least temporarily derail the tariffs imposed under the [law]."
President Donald Trump, at a Cabinet meeting conducted in front of the press on July 8, said that an announcement on lumber tariffs or quotas "just came out," adding, "now today, we're doing copper. I believe the tariff on copper we're gonna make that 50%."
A spokesman for the European Commission said the EU is not viewing the new Aug. 1 effective date of higher country-specific reciprocal tariffs as a sign they have more weeks to reach an agreement with the U.S. on tariffs. "Our aim remains to find an agreement before the ninth of July," Olof Gill told reporters in Brussels on July 7.
Two days before the now extended pause on higher country-specific reciprocal tariffs was to end (see 2507070054), President Donald Trump shared screenshots of letters he is sending to trading partners large -- Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia -- and small, informing them what rates their goods will face at the border, starting Aug. 1.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 23-29:
Georgetown Law School Professor Jennifer Hillman, a former International Trade Commissioner and member of the World Trade Organization's appellate body, said she thinks there are grounds for a challenge to 25% tariffs on autos and auto parts, imposed on national security grounds under Section 232.