Customs duties: Washington assures that trade agreements “will continue”
The American Trade Representative affirms that the agreements concluded with the European Union and China will be respected, despite the decision of the Supreme Court limiting the use of a 1977 text to impose customs duties.
Touched but not sunk. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday that the trade agreements concluded by the United States with the European Union, China and other partners "are going to be good agreements" and "will endure", despite the setback inflicted on the executive on Friday by the Supreme Court of the United States. “We are having active discussions with them. We want them to understand that these deals are going to be good deals. We intend to respect them. We are counting on the fact that our partners respect them,” he declared on the CBS show Face the Nation.
Trump – Xi meeting under the sign of stability
On ABC, Jamieson Greer clarified that the meeting planned for April between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping was not intended to “fight over trade”. “It’s about maintaining stability, making sure that they respect their part of the agreement and that they buy American, agricultural products, Boeing and others, and making sure that they send us the rare earths that we need,” he explained, believing that it was “really about overseeing the agreement”. “If there are areas of additional understanding, we will find them,” he added.
On Friday, the Supreme Court overturned a large part of the customs duties introduced by Donald Trump on the basis of IEEPA, a 1977 law authorizing the president to act without prior approval from Congress in the event of an “economic emergency”. The judges ruled that imposing tariffs was in principle within the power of Congress. In the process, Donald Trump signed a new global customs tax of 10%, increased to 15% on Saturday, which must come into force on February 24 for a period of 150 days, with sectoral exemptions. “It is important to understand that, over the years, Congress has delegated enormous authority to the president in matters of customs taxes,” argued Jamieson Greer on CBS, recalling that customs duties adopted on the basis of other laws “continue to apply”.
