Trade Policy and Tariff Updates

Executive Orders – February 13, 2025

President Trump signed Executive Orders regarding “reciprocal” tariffs. 

The key takeaways are:

1. No additional tariffs immediately
2. US trade agencies (primarily Commerce and USTR) are to study tariffs imposed by other countries on U.S. exports and recommend whether the US should impose comparable tariffs against US imports from those countries. 
3. Value-Added Tax and other tax regimes that US trading partners use but the US does not are potentially going to be included in the tariff rate calculations for those countries.  Also potentially included are distortions in exchange rates caused by currency policies of some countries and “non-tariff barriers” such as regulatory requirements (e.g., REACH, country-specific standards) that are found to restrict market access opportunities of US exporters
4. Recommendations are due to the president by April 1, 2025 – the same date as originally set in the “America First Trade Policy”
5. Thereafter, the US trade agencies are to use their respective statutory authorities (e.g., Section 232, 301, etc.) to impose relevant and necessary remedies such as tariffs, quotas, or other measures
6. On its face, this EO applies to all countries, but we may see exemptions for some (e.g., Australia) with which the United States maintains relatively balanced trade in goods.

Overall, this action signals the form that eventual additional U.S. trade measures may take – e.g., tariffs and quotas under existing statutory authorities – as well as, most importantly, that there will be a process and longer time horizon for interested parties to comment before such measures go into effect.  Companies and investors with interests impacted by these issues should use this time to prepare data and other analyses and advocacy to support their interests.