<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/trump-tariffs-executive-order.html" class="">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/trump-tariffs-executive-order.html</a> </div><div class=""><h1 class="e1h9rw200 css-1fyu99" data-testid="headline">Trump Holds Off on Tariffs, but Paves the Way for Future Trade Action</h1><p class="css-cb4rkw">The
president’s executive action on trade will keep all possibilities on
the table, including eventual tariffs against China, Canada and Mexico.</p></div><div class=""><div class="css-7hsod0"><div class="css-12em5ns"><ul class="epjyd6m4 css-1cgskve"><li class="css-ccw2r3 epjyd6m3"><time datetime="2025-01-20T14:11:13-05:00" class="e16638kd2 css-1gu861y"><span class="e16638kd3 css-1sbuyqj">Jan. 20, 2025</span><span class="e16638kd4 css-233int">Updated <span class="css-epvm6">2:11 p.m. ET</span></span></time></li></ul></div><div class="css-j3uhc5"><div class="css-1h1tosb"><a class="css-3fkga7" href="https://www.nytimes.com/es/2025/01/20/espanol/estados-unidos/donald-trump-aranceles.html" data-version="es" title="Read in Spanish">Leer en español</a></div></div></div><section name="articleBody" class="meteredContent css-1r7ky0e"><div class="css-1vkgw65" data-testid="floating-button"><div class="css-vxcmzt"><div class="css-79elbk"></div></div></div></section><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">President
Trump will stop short of immediately imposing tariffs on imported
products on Monday, but will issue an executive order directing federal
agencies to begin studying a broad list of trade issues that could
ultimately result in taxes on goods from China, Canada, Mexico and other
countries in the coming months.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
decision suggests that Mr. Trump is taking a more measured approach to
fulfilling a key campaign promise of using tariffs to reorder America’s
trading relationships. It will also delay — at least for now — fights
that have been brewing with foreign governments, which have promised to
answer Mr. Trump’s levies with tariffs of their own.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
topics Mr. Trump will direct his officials to investigate in an
executive order Monday will be extensive, including trade deficits and
trade deals signed with China, Canada and Mexico. That could tee up the
ability of the president to deploy tariffs on numerous targets for many
different reasons, potentially scrambling international supply chains
and spawning global trade wars in the weeks and months to come.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The
executive order will direct federal agencies to examine unfair trade
and currency practices and to assess whether foreign governments have
complied with terms of the two trade deals Mr. Trump signed in his first
presidency. It will also require the government to assess the
feasibility of creating an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariffs
and duties</p></div></div><div class=""><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Trump is also
ordering a study of tariffs that the United States has imposed for
national security reasons, as well as the use of <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/14/business/economy/tariffs-amazon-walmart-china-shein.html" title="">a special trade exemption</a>,
called de minimis, that allows low-value goods to come into the United
States tariff free. That loophole has allowed large volumes of Chinese
goods to escape the tariffs Mr. Trump slapped on China during his first
term. The details of the executive order were earlier reported by <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-to-lay-out-trade-visionbut-wont-impose-new-tariffs-yet-b9c8378d" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal</a>.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">While
Mr. Trump has decided to hold off on tariffs for now, his advisers say
he remains more convinced than ever that they can be used to great
advantage.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The president and his
advisers have been favoring a combination of policies, including a
universal tariff on foreign products, a higher tariff on China and
separate measures that could address the trade relationship with Mexico
and Canada by imposing taxes on those countries as well, people familiar
with the plans said.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In his
inauguration address on Monday, Mr. Trump said he would “immediately
begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and
families.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">There will be “massive
amounts of money pouring into our Treasury” because of tariffs, he said.
“The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before.”</p></div></div><div class=""><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Trump has
praised tariffs for their ability to help U.S. factories, raise revenue
to help pay for the tax cuts he hopes to enact and generally serve as a
source of leverage in negotiations with foreign countries.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">While
managing trade is technically the domain of Congress, various trade
laws have given the president wide-ranging powers to issue tariffs. The
president can use them to defend U.S. national security, answer back to
unfair trade practices and counter various types of international
emergencies.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Trump and his
advisers are continuing to debate the best method to use to issue their
tariffs, but they believe they have the legal authority to use any of
them, people familiar with the deliberations said.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Some
U.S. manufacturers credit the tariffs that Mr. Trump imposed during his
first term — and that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. kept in place —
with helping their businesses survive amid intense competition from
countries like China. But economists and many other businesses argue
that tariffs can cause economic harm, as they raise the prices of
imported goods and incite retaliation from other governments that can
hurt U.S. exports.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Trump’s
executive order will keep foreign governments on notice in the coming
weeks, as they try to establish closer ties with his administration and
convince the president not to target them.</p></div></div><div class=""><section name="articleBody" class="meteredContent css-1r7ky0e"><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-3"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Canadian officials have <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/world/canada/canada-trump-tariffs.html" title="">drawn up a list of American goods</a>
they intend to tax in return if hit by Mr. Trump’s tariffs, including
Florida orange juice, Tennessee whiskey and Kentucky peanut butter.
Mexico has also <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/us/mexico-tariffs-us-trump.html" title="">threatened retaliatory tariffs</a> on American exports, as has the European Union and other governments.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">During
his first term, Mr. Trump rocked the country’s global trade
relationships by imposing tariffs against foreign washing machines,
solar panels, metals and a variety of products from China. Those moves
nearly doubled the average tariff rate applied to imported goods, though
U.S. tariffs still remained comparatively low by international
standards.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Economists have expressed
concerns about Mr. Trump’s plans to expand those taxes. They say that,
while tariffs can help certain protected American industries, they have
other downsides for the economy, including raising costs for households
and businesses that rely on imported products.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Lydia
Cox, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, described
tariffs as “a pretty blunt instrument” in an online forum hosted by the
Harvard Kennedy School last week.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">There
are some potential benefits for protected industries from tariffs, she
said, “but they create a lot of collateral damage along the way.”</p></div><aside class="css-ew4tgv" aria-label="companion column"></aside></div></section><div class="bottom-of-article"><div class="css-1i6tsou"><div class="eqi4ubu0 css-h77nca"><div class="css-kzd6pg"><p class=""><span class="css-97bxx6"><a class="overrideLinkStyles authorPageLinkClass" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/ana-swanson">Ana Swanson</a></span>
covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in
Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade.<span class="css-kzd6pg"> <a class="overrideLinkStyles authorPageLinkClass" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/ana-swanson">More about Ana Swanson</a></span></p></div></div></div></div></div><br class=""><div class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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<br class=""><div class="">
Arthur Stamoulis<br class="">Citizens Trade Campaign<br class="">(202) 494-8826<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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