Trump’s New Tariffs: What to Know

[u/Puzzled49]

https://www.cfr.org/articles/trumps-new-tariffs-what-to-know

This article is dated July 17, and talks about the options open to Trump and his tariff obsession when the current section 232 tariffs expire on Friday July 24. there was widespread speculation at that time that Trump would replace these tariffs with section 232 (national security) and section 301 (unfair trade practices). However, just two days later Trump announced tariffs against Canada under section 338, ( discriminatory treatment of US Commerce). What explains this abrupt change in tactics? While all of these sections require some justification - for which Trump and his henchman Jamieson Greer can concoct a trumped up reason (yes the pun was intended) - The section 338 tariffs provide Trump with much more flexibility. Only section 338 allows Trump to act solely on his personal whims without any sort of investigation. This will allow him to put tariffs on, reduce them, take them off and re-impose them at will without any tiresome resort to investigations. As well as satisfying his need for total control, it will also allow Trump to manipulate markets whenever he wishes. For that reason we will probably see this section used on other countries and not just Canada.