San Francisco Frontiers - US trade envoy to make tariff announcement as 10% duty soon expires

Asked about the upcoming deadline, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that US trade envoy Jamieson Greer will make an announcement "very soon, later today."

"I would just tell you to stay tuned for more details," she said at a press briefing.

After the Supreme Court struck down a host of Trump's tariffs in February, the US leader swiftly replaced the blocked duties with a temporary 10 percent levy on imports.

But this can only last 150 days, meaning that it expires Friday.

The Trump administration has since prepared a volley of new duties targeting 60 economies over what it has deemed forced labor concerns, moving to rebuild the president's tariff wall.

But officials have yet to set out a timeline for the imposition of the tariffs, set between 10 percent and 12.5 percent and poised to hit goods from major trading partners including China, the European Union and India.

These measures were proposed after a months-long investigation and are considered more durable than earlier ones.

But Greer declined Wednesday to confirm to reporters if the fresh duties will be finalized by Friday's deadline, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"We're not focused on any particular timeline. We're focused on fulfilling the legal and statutory requirements," he said.

Besides the new proposed tariffs justified by alleged forced labor concerns, Greer has also previously suggested that there could be a basis to reimpose Trump's global levies after their expiration.

- Seeking flexibility -

There could be a gap between the expiration and imposition of new duties, trade lawyer Ryan Majerus told AFP.

This might cause brief confusion for businesses shipping goods during the window, but the bigger picture is unchanged.

The Trump administration has been hunting for options that would give them flexibility to aggressively deploy tariffs at will, Majerus said.

He added that in the longer term, Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which Greer tapped to propose duties on dozens of countries, provides "more flexibility than people realize."

Once they are in place, officials can modify them based on new developments, said Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding.

Separate ongoing probes -- under Section 301 as well -- on 16 economies over excess industrial capacity could provide further basis for tariff hikes.

These could lead to different rates among countries, as Trump imposed before his Supreme Court setback.

But major partners like the EU, which earlier signed a trade deal with Washington, expect their pacts to hold.

EU trade spokesman Olof Gill said: "It is our clear understanding and expectation that the US will honor the commitments that are spelled out under the EU-US Joint Statement, whatever tariff regime is constructed."

This means officials expect that tariffs on EU goods will generally be capped at 15 percent, as outlined in the deal.

T.Martin--SFF