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The U.S. goods and services trade deficit was $105.0 billion in September, down $0.7 billion from a revised $105.7 billion in August, the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis said November 4. Exports rose $5.8 billion to $321.5 billion and imports rose $5.2 billion to $426.6 billion. The next report is due December 8.
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The duties replace a temporary 10 percent tariff that expired at midnight, and rest on a different law after the Supreme Court struck down earlier emergency tariffs in February.
New U.S. tariffs of 10 percent to 12.5 percent on imports from 59 countries and the European Union took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Friday, July 24, the moment a temporary 10 percent global tariff expired, NBC News and NPR report. The trading partners covered account for about 99 percent of U.S. imports, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said.
The administration issued the tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, citing what it says is inadequate enforcement of bans on goods made with forced labor. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the action would begin to correct a human rights abuse and a distortive trade practice. Some trade experts questioned that rationale; Caroline Freund of the University of California, San Diego, told the BBC the move was about finding a lasting legal basis for tariffs aimed at the trade deficit. The Supreme Court ruled in February that many earlier tariffs imposed under emergency powers were illegal.
The new duties come on top of existing tariffs on goods such as steel, aluminum and lumber and on some individual countries. The president also signed proclamations this week imposing 50 percent tariffs on some Canadian goods starting in about a month, NPR reports, and the trade representative is investigating 16 countries over manufacturing overcapacity, which could lead to more tariffs.
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