Article by: Rick Walker, Vice President, TradeInsights, LCB/CCS

On April 2, President Trump signed a pair of executive orders as part of a “Liberation Day” ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. The first executive order implements Trump’s reciprocal tariff plan. The second executive order ends the duty-free de minimis exemption for Chinese-origin goods. With some exceptions, these new tariffs are in addition to other duties, taxes, fees, and charges already in place. The tariffs will remain in place until the U.S. government determines that increases or decreases should be implemented.

The White House Executive Order issued April 2 stated that all articles imported into the U.S. will be subject to an additional ad valorem rate of duty of 10 percent. The rates of duty shall apply with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. ET on April 5, except that goods loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in transit on the final mode of transit before 12:01 a.m. ET on April 5 and entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption after 12:01 a.m. ET on April 5 shall not be subject to such additional duty.

Furthermore, except as otherwise provided in this order, at 12:01 a.m. ET on April 9, all articles from trading partners enumerated in Annex I to this order imported into U.S. shall be, consistent with law, subject to the country-specific ad valorem rates of duty specified in Annex I to this order. Such rates of duty shall apply with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. ET on April 9, except that goods loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in transit on the final mode of transit before 12:01 a.m. ET on April 9 and entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption after 12:01 a.m. ET on April 9 shall not be subject to these country-specific ad valorem rates of duty set forth in Annex I to this order. These country-specific ad valorem rates of duty shall apply to all articles imported pursuant to the terms of all existing U.S. trade agreements, except as provided below.

It’s worth noting that the order states that articles currently subject to, or in the future subject to Section 232 duties will not be subject to this order. It also states that automobiles and automobile parts subject to the recently announced tariffs on those products are not subject to this order. Other products listed in Annex II of the order are also exempt from these additional duties. Lastly, goods that meet USMCA rules of origin — other than cars, trucks and vans—will not be subject to these new duties.

We would encourage everyone to read the executive orders. As of this writing, there have been no implementation instructions from CBP.

We will provide further updates as they become known.

Please contact your V. Alexander account team, or you may also contact our Trade Compliance team at tradeinsights@valexander.com with any questions.