[CTC] Lori Wallach on tariffs and de minimis

[Arthur Stamoulis]

see more links at the original Twitter post...

https://x.com/WallachLori/status/1886212493636423873 <https://x.com/WallachLori/status/1886212493636423873>

about Trump’s 2/1/2025 tariff “plan”… Tariffs are a powerful, effective tool to deliver certain goals. But Trump’s Canada/China/Mexico tariffs make zero sense. And even undermine tariffs’ legit uses, as the UAW president rightly notes. 1/11

The official stated purpose of 25% tariffs on all Mexican and Candian goods and 10% on all Chinese goods (added to 20ish% existing tariffs on 2/3 of Chinese imports) is pressure re. fentanyl  trafficking and unauthorized migration 2/11

Using tariffs to try to achieve these goals is like trying surgery using a saxophone – wrong tool! So, maybe fentanyl/migration were named as “emergencies” to gain use of the Int'l Emergency Economic Powers Act, the speediest authority a president can access for tariffs? 3/11

But inexplicably, the EO whiffs on drugs, not shutting down the dodge around package inspection that traffickers use to bring fentanyl-laced pills from China to American doorsteps and fentanyl precursor chemicals from China to Mexico via the U.S. 4/11

Shutting down the flood of uninspected low-value packages of imports, not tariffs, is what law enforcement and groups representing families who have lost people to fentanyl explicitly demanded of Pres. Trump. He has existing authority to do this. 5/11

The 2/1/25 tariff EOs suspend duty-free access for small-value packages from CH, MX, CA. But allows this “de minimis” stuff to STILL DODGE formal Customs requirements, which is what creates the flood of four million daily e-commerce packages in which fentanyl is hidden. 6/11

Back to the effective uses of tariffs… After decades of an American trade policy run by and for the largest corporations and to the detriment of American workers, independent farmers and small businesses, we certainly do need a new approach! 7/11

But simply imposing 25% tariffs on MX and CA and another 10% on China will not rebuild American manufacturing/create US manufacturing jobs or raise wages. Particularly, if such tariffs can be axed, lowered or upped at the president's whim for reasons unrelated to trade/jobs. 8/11

If the goal is to fix USMCA, Trump’s 2020 NAFTA redo, then use the pact’s 6-year built-in review to renegotiate. (Instead of USMCA ending NAFTA’s trade deficit/job loss, the deficit rose from $130B when USMCA started to $220B+ & offshoring continued) 9/11

If the goal is US manufacturing revival, tariffs must be paired with policies for industrial capacity investment, demand for US-made goods & to stop price-gouging & ease unionization so corporations that made record profits pay for the adjustment, not workers and consumers. 9/11

(Plus, the government must offer clear signals to the private sector ensuring that tariff policy won’t be changed abruptly. This is key to encourage the needed investment in productive activities...) 10.5/11

To me, a big mystery is what happened to the rational Trump trade policy strategy described in the detailed January 20, 2025 memo. And how we got seemingly random Canada, Mexico and China tariffs instead… https://whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/america-first-trade-policy/ <https://t.co/wJffdYzUoO> 11/11





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