Commerce Department

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström believes the U.S. is considering instituting either a hard quota or a tariff-rate quota on European steel and aluminum exports, she told the European Parliament on Tuesday.

“In America, Toyota has 10 plants, 136,000 employees & 1,500 dealers that contribute to their local economies,” the company noted on Twitter.

Senate and House lawmakers broadly condemned President Trump’s decision to launch a Section 232 investigation into the national security implications of auto imports, with some questioning whether Congress should try to reclaim some trade authority it has ceded to the executive branch.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has initiated a Section 232 investigation into the national security implications of automobile imports, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday.

The Commerce and State departments have floated new rules for firearms, other guns and ammunition.

The Commerce Department has issued steep final duties on imports of certain cold-rolled steel products from Vietnam that are produced with Chinese material, determining that Vietnamese exporters have been circumventing existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders imposed by the U.S.

While quota deals agreed to by the U.S. and other countries in exchange for immunity from Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum could run up against World Trade Organization rules, analysts say the chances of a third-party challenge are slim due to litigation costs and other uncertainties.

“The Chinese have said ‘we want to see the specifics.’ We gave them all the specifics in terms of trade issues. So they can’t say they don’t know what we’re asking for.”