Ashley Craig, chair of the International Trade and Logistics group of Venable LLP, reviews key aspects of the second Trump administration’s trade policy, including tariffs, economic sanctions, forced-labor bans and foreign investment review. 

In his first days in office, President Trump began making good on the pledge he issued on the campaign trail to impose tariffs on U.S. trade partners, promising a 25% assessment on all goods entering the country from Canada and Mexico as of February 1, as well as an additional 10% duty on imports from China. Further such action is likely, Craig said, with Trump initially holding off on slapping tariffs on imports from the European Union, as he also had threatened to do. 

To justify his authority to impose new taxes without prior approval by Congress, Trump has invoked several laws. Craig says his most likely justification for the latest round of tariffs will be the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), enacted in 1977. The President will likely cite the fentanyl crisis as the basis of a “national emergency” that meets the criteria of IEEPA.

Also in the crosshairs of the new administration is the “de minimis” exemption for import shipments with a value of less than $800 per package per day, allowing them to enter the country without payment of duties or taxes. That privilege came under fire from both major political parties, as it led to a flood of e-commerce orders being shipped directly from Chinese manufacturers by the e-tailers Temu and Shein. The exemption was also exploited by the illicit drug trade. In its latest series of punitive trade actions, the Trump administration has eliminated it altogether. (This video was recorded before Trump took that action.)

Expect Trump to continue, or even intensify, the nation’s ban on goods imported from China’s Xinjiang Province, where workers from the ethnic Uyghur population are said to be subjected to what amounts to slave labor. Craig notes that the stricture also applies to certain areas of China outside Xinjiang, in response to China’s attempts to circumvent the U.S. law by relocating some Uyghurs to other parts of the country, while continuing to engage in forced labor.