An investigation determined by the US Department of Trade is expected to start on Wednesday and should last a maximum of 21 days. There is a section of US law that allows the president to impose rates on products if it is shown that their import volume poses a risk to national security.
The US Department of Commerce opened an investigation on Monday to determine the “effects on national security” of importing pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, a first step required to allow President Donald Trump to impose customs rates. The head of state believes that the rates intended for pharmaceuticals will start “soon”.
This investigation, released in government documents submitted to the Official Journal, is a necessary first step that can allow Donald Trump to issue a decree that imposes customs rates on these two sectors of activity, in the sights of the US president since his return to the White House.
Donald Trump said on Sunday that he did not announce on Friday exemption from customs rates for electronic devices and components because “they belong to another tariff category” under analysis, implying that they will be taxed.
On Friday, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported that phones, computers, screens and various components, including semiconductors, are exempt from Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs, which is now 10% for virtually every country around the world and 145% for China, punished for their commercial retaliation.
“No tariff exception was announced on Friday,” he wrote on Monday, Trump in a publication where “these products are subject to current 20% rates for Fentanil [que impôs contra a China no início do seu mandato por considerar que esta não faz o suficiente para combater o tráfico desta droga]and are simply being moved to another tariff category. “
“The media of fake news knows it, but refuse to report it. We are looking at the semiconductors and the entire electronic product supply chain in the upcoming national security investigations,” the text continues that, as I said, the US is considering a specific rate on semiconductors.
PHARMACEUTICAL RAIRS “In the near future”
Still on Monday, on the sidelines of Nayib Bukele’s visit to the White House, the US head of state has assured that he will impose tariffs on “in the near future” pharmaceutical companies:
“We do not manufacture our own medicines, our own pharmaceutical products. We no longer manufacture our own medicines. Pharmaceutical companies are in Ireland and in many other places in China. And all I have to do is impose a tariff. The more they are, the more proportionate.
The investigation determined by the Department of Commerce is expected to start on Wednesday with a request for comments, which should last a maximum of 21 days.
It uses a section of the law that allows the president to impose rates on products if it is shown that their import volume poses a risk to national security.
The arrangement, approved in 1962, however, was almost never used before Donald Trump during his first term to justify the imposition of taxes on steel and aluminum imports.
The US President was once again based on this clause, known as Section 232, to reintroduce 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum and cars in mid-March.
Donald Trump made the fares the basic stone of his economic policy and an important diplomatic tool to extract concessions from other countries.
