tariffs

The U.S. Trade Representative’s process for doling out exclusions to Section 301 tariffs on imports from China has slowed to a painful crawl.

Only approximately 700 requests for exclusions on the first $34 billion tranche of imports were decided over the past month, with half of those denied over concerns that product characteristics were not sufficiently narrow to prevent unrelated products from slipping through customs. The overall rejection rate on the 10,829 exclusion requests on the tranche increased to 62 percent.

Agricultural goods and metal products topped a list of European Union goods targeted for possible trade countermeasures as the U.S. Trade Representative turned up the pressure in the Airbus subsidy dispute on Tuesday.

The USTR added 89 tariff categories with a value of $4 billion in a new list of potential targets for retaliatory tariffs, increasing the potential value of such imports by about 19 percent since it took public comment on May 15 and 16 on possible targets.

President Donald Trump’s proposal to impose tariffs on Mexican imports if that country doesn’t stem the flow of migrants trying to enter the United States is “a distraction from the Mueller report,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday.

“And it’s served its purpose, right? Here we are,” the California Democrat noted as she faced questions about tariffs during her weekly press conference.

Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr and Speaker Paul D. Ryan navigated a sensitive trade issue on the campaign trail Tuesday as they both lamented and defended President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs during a joint appearance at Toyota Tsusho America in Georgetown, Kentucky.

“Obviously, this is a very trade sensitive industry,” Barr said to the auto manufacturer’s employees, before launching into a defense of Trump’s trade inclinations.