Global Trade & Retail Crisis Watch

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Supreme Court rejects fast track of Trump tariff challenge by toy companies

Source: CNBC

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from two toy companies to expedite their challenge to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The ruling from the nation’s high court means that the Trump administration now has the standard 30-day window to file its response to the challenge.

Two small family-owned companies, Learning Resources and hand2mind, argued that Trump lacked authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose his April 2 tariffs.

The companies earlier this week asked the Supreme Court to expedite consideration of their challenge and bypass a federal appeals court.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/20/supreme ... anies.html

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Trump’s Tariffs are Hurting U.S. Agriculture. Some Farmers Still Support Them

By Illan Ireland
June 24, 2025

Conclusion:

(Investigate Midwest) On March 18, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that her agency would distribute up to $10 billion in subsidies to help farmers bounce back from 2024. The funds, authorized by Congress at the end of last year, have helped Mississippi farmers reduce outstanding debts and secure crop loans for the current growing season, according to (Mike) McCormick (president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation).

As Trump fights to preserve his tariffs in court, McCormick said his members may be willing to “stand a little bit of pain” if the trade dispute leads to new markets. “We just gotta hope that we can get better deals and … a quick resolution,” he said.

(Will) Maples (a professor at Mississippi State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics) worries that pain could prove too great for some local producers, especially those who are new to the industry and lack the capital to withstand an extended tariff onslaught. The trade dispute could fast-track retirement plans for some older farmers in the state, he added.

These farm closures would have ripple effects across entire communities, affecting people and companies that rely on their business, Maples concluded.

“A bad farm economy hurts rural America at the end of the day,” he said.

Read more here: https://investigatemidwest.org/2025/06 ... rt-them/

Of related interest: https://investigatemidwest.org/2025/06/ ... s-farmers/

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Trump tariffs live updates: Trump says US, China framework 'signed' as Bessent targets Labor Day for key deals
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/tru ... 19915.html

The US and China stepped closer to a full tariff and trade deal on Thursday, making a pact to formally cement the informal trade understanding reached in Geneva talks in May.

Lutnick also claimed that trade agreements with 10 key US trading partners are imminent, as countries from Canada to Japan struggle to get over the finish line with just two weeks to go. Bessent on Friday said the US could complete the balance of its most important trade talks by Labor Day.

The Trump administration has signaled a willingness to roll back the self-imposed tariff deadline of July 9 as pressure builds. Stephen Miran, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the tariff pause to be extended for countries negotiating "in good faith."

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More on that by the AP:

https://apnews.com/article/trump-canada ... 3198bac45f

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Trump says he's not planning to extend a pause on global tariffs beyond July 9
https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariff ... 3749dd10d1

By DAVID KLEPPER and ALI SWENSON
Updated 12:28 PM CDT, June 29, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is not planning to extend a 90-day pause on tariffs on most nations beyond July 9, when the negotiating period he set would expire, and his administration will notify countries that the trade penalties will take effect unless there are deals with the United States.

Letters will start going out “pretty soon” before the approaching deadline, he said.

“We’ll look at how a country treats us — are they good, are they not so good — some countries we don’t care, we’ll just send a high number out,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” during a wide-ranging interview taped Friday and broadcast Sunday.

Those letters, he said, would say, “Congratulations, we’re allowing you to shop in the United States of America, you’re going to pay a 25% tariff, or a 35% or a 50% or 10%.”

Trump had played down the deadline at a White House news conference Friday by noting how difficult it would be to work out separate deals with each nation. The administration had set a goal of reaching 90 trade deals in 90 days.

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Trump Plans to Start Notifying Countries of US Tariffs Up to 70%

Source: msn/Bloomberg

5h


US President Donald Trump said his administration will probably start notifying trading partners Friday of the new US tariff on their exports effective Aug. 1, while reiterating a preference for simplicity over complicated negotiations five days before his deadline for deals.

Trump told reporters that about “10 or 12” letters would go out Friday, with additional letters coming “over the next few days.”

“By the ninth they’ll be fully covered,” Trump added, referring to a July 9 deadline he initially set for countries to reach deals with the US to avoid higher import duties he has threatened. “They’ll range in value from maybe 60 or 70% tariffs to 10 and 20% tariffs,” he added.

US talks with economies from Indonesia and South Korea to the European Union and Switzerland are reaching critical stages, where the most contentious issues are hammered out. Trump’s latest threat, which fits his pattern of issuing ultimatums to break any impasses, aligns with earlier statements that some nations won’t have a say in their tariff level.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/t ... r-AA1HVzpt

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Trump announces 25% tariffs on Japan, South Korea in first U.S. trade letters

Source: CNBC

Published Mon, Jul 7 2025 12:27 PM EDT | Updated 3 Min Ago

The United States will impose 25% blanket tariffs on imports from Japan and South Korea starting Aug. 1, President Donald Trump revealed Monday.

Trump, in a pair of Truth Social posts, shared screenshots of letters apparently sent to Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung dictating the new tariff rates.


This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/07/trump-t ... japan.html

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Trump says 50% tariff on copper coming Tuesday

Source: CNN Business

Updated 1:23 PM EDT, Tue July 8, 2025

CNN — President Donald Trump said a new 50% tariff on all copper imports will come Tuesday. However, he did not specify when the new tariff would take effect.

“Today we’re doing copper,” he said at a Cabinet meeting, adding that he believed the rate will be 50%.

This would mark the fourth across-the-board tariff Trump has imposed during his second term. Currently, imported cars and car parts face a 25% tariff while imported steel and aluminum face 50% tariffs.

Trump ordered a Section 232 investigation into copper imports in February.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/08/business ... per-tariff

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Trump announces 50% tariff on Brazil in retaliation for Bolsonaro trial, trade deficit

Source: CNBC

President Donald Trump said Wednesday the U.S. will slap a 50% tariff on Brazil’s imports, partly in retaliation for the ongoing prosecution of the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro.

Trump said in a letter that the new tariff — a massive jump from the 10% rate the U.S. imposed on Brazil in early April — is also being imposed in response to the “very unfair trade relationship” between the two countries.
...
Trump has previously sounded off on Brazil over its treatment of Bolsonaro, a vocal ally of the U.S. president who is standing trial over his role in an alleged coup to overturn his 2022 reelection loss.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/09/trump-b ... onaro.html

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Trump announces 30% tariffs on EU and Mexico, starting Aug. 1


Source: CNBC

Published Sat, Jul 12 2025 8:57 AM EDT Updated 44 Min Ago

President Donald Trump said Saturday the U.S. will impose a 30% tariff on goods from the European Union and Mexico that will take effect on Aug. 1.

Trump revealed the new rates in letters to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, which he posted on his social media site Truth Social. “Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough,” Trump wrote to Sheinbaum.

Trump said that there will not be tariffs on goods from the EU if the 27-member bloc, “or companies within the EU, decide to build or manufacture product[s] within the United States,” he wrote. He said that if the EU or Mexico retaliates with higher tariffs, “then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added on to the 30% that we charge.”

The EU was seeking at least a preliminary agreement that would spare it from becoming the latest recipient of a letter from Trump dictating a new, across-the-board tariff on its exports to the U.S.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/12/trump-t ... trade.html

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European trade ministers pledge unity after Trump's surprise 30% tariffs

Source: AP

Updated 10:02 AM EDT, July 14, 2025

BRUSSELS (AP) — European trade ministers were hopeful Monday for a negotiated trade deal after President Donald Trump announced 30% tariffs on the European Unio n, but also expressed resolve in preparing countermeasures if talks break down. The ministers met Monday in Brussels following Trump’s surprise announcement of such hefty tariffs, which could have repercussions for governments, companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The EU is America’s biggest business partner and the world’s largest trading bloc. “The EU remains ready to react and that includes robust and proportionate countermeasures if required and there was a strong, feeling in the room of unity,” Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, told reporters after the meeting.

The tariffs, also announced for Mexico, are set to start on Aug. 1 and could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the U.S., and destabilize economies from Portugal to Norway.

Meanwhile, Brussels decided to suspend retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/europe-us-tr ... 2c50392d0f

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US imposes a 17% duty on fresh Mexican tomatoes in hopes of boosting domestic production

The U.S. government said Monday it is immediately placing a 17% duty on most fresh Mexican tomatoes after negotiations ended without an agreement to avert the tariff.

Proponents said the import tax will help rebuild the shrinking U.S. tomato industry and ensure that produce eaten in the U.S. is also grown there. Mexico currently supplies around 70% of the U.S. tomato market, up from 30% two decades ago, according to the Florida Tomato Exchange.

Robert Guenther, the trade group's executive vice president, said the duty was “an enormous victory for American tomato farmers and American agriculture."

But opponents said the import tax will make tomatoes more expensive for U.S. consumers.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-impos ... 32170.html