Trump Administration Seeks Public Comments On Reciprocal Tariff Plan
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) it will be banking comments from the public regarding President Donald Trump’s “Reciprocal Trade and Tariffs Presidential Memorandum.”
Comments are due March 11, 2025.
Instructions for how to provide comments can be found in this Federal Register notice. The Office of the USTR said the “comments will assist the U.S. Trade Representative in reviewing and identifying any unfair trade or non-reciprocal foreign trade practices.”
As Connecting the Dots reported last week, on Feb. 13, President Trump signed an executive memorandum that paves the way for his administration to begin a review process to initiate reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners. That review process will examine:
- Tariffs imposed on U.S. products;
- So-called unfair, discriminatory, or extraterritorial taxes imposed by trading partners on U.S. businesses, workers, and consumers, including a value-added tax;
- Costs to U.S. businesses, workers, and consumers arising from non-tariff barriers or measures that trading partners have put in place;
- Unfair or harmful acts, policies, or practices, including subsidies, and burdensome regulatory requirements on that have been placed on U.S. businesses operating in other countries;
- Policies and practices that cause exchange rates to deviate from their market value to the detriment of Americans;
- Mercantilist policies that make U.S. businesses and workers less competitive;
- Wage suppression tactics; and
- Any other practice deemed to impose any unfair limitation on market access or any structural impediment to fair competition with the United States’ market economy.
The Office of the USTR will be looking for information regarding these topics in the comments submitted by the public.
Need more information? Read the White House’s fact sheet outlining the components of the reciprocal tariff memo at this link.