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               Congressional
            SaResearch Service






Escalating U.S. Tariffs: Affected Trade



Updated September 12, 2019
The trade practices of U.S. trading partners and the U.S. trade deficit are a focus of the Trump
Administration. Citing these and other concerns, the President has imposed tariff increases under three
U.S. laws:
    *  (1) Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 on U.S. imports of washing machines and solar
       products;
    *  (2) Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 on U.S. imports of steel and
       aluminum,  and potentially motor vehicles/parts and titanium sponge (the President
       decided not to impose tariffs on uranium imports, after an investigation); and
    *  (3) Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 on U.S. imports from China.
In May 2019, in response to concerns over immigration, the President also proposed an additional 5%
tariff on imports from Mexico under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), but
subsequently suspended the proposed tariffs indefinitely citing an agreement reached with Mexico. For a
timeline of recent actions, see CRS Insight IN10943, Escalating US. Tariffs: Timeline. The
Administration has stated that it is using existing and proposed tariffs for a range of purposes, including
as leverage for trade negotiations with affected trading partners, such as China, Japan, and the European
Union (EU), and, as noted, to influence Mexico's immigration policies. While tariffs may benefit a
limited number of import-competing firms, they also increase costs for downstream users of imported
products and consumers and may have broader negative effects on the U.S. economy, as well as several
policy implications.
The multiple tariff increases applied to date, ranging from 10% to 45%, affect approximately 15% of U.S.
annual imports. This amounts to $393.3 billion of imports using 2018 annual data; notably, the tariffs
went into effect at vanious times in 2018 and 2019 (Figure 1). Section 301 tariffs on U.S. imports from
China account for more than 90% of trade affected by the Administration's tariff actions. While the
Administration has taken some steps to reduce the scale of imports affected by the tariffs (i.e., by
exempting Canada and Mexico  from the steel and aluminum duties and creating processes by which
certain products may be excluded), the general trend is an escalation of tariff actions.
In the spring and summer of 2019, the Administration implemented and proposed a series of additional
tariff actions, significantly expanding the share of U.S. trade potentially affected. In August, the
Administration announced new Section 301 tariffs of 10% on approximately $300 billion of U.S. imports

                                                                  Congressional Research Service
                                                                    https://crsreports.congress.gov
                                                                                        IN10971

CRS INSIGHT
Prepared for Members and
Committees of Congress

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