On January 20, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum titled the “America First Trade Policy” (“the Memorandum”), which mandates a sweeping review of current US trade and economic policies. Notably, not among this plan is the immediate imposition of new tariffs. Instead, the memorandum focuses on establishing a “robust and reinvigorated trade policy that promotes investment and productivity” while benefiting “American workers, manufacturers, farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, and businesses.”
The Memorandum also directs several agencies to investigate and make recommendations relating to trade deficits, unfair trade practices, and creating an External Revenue Service; and to review existing US trade agreements, the de minimis exemption, and export controls. The outcomes and recommendations are generally due to President Trump by April 1, 2025. We have summarized these actions below.
Federal Agency Investigations
The Memorandum directs several federal agencies1 to conduct investigations and recommend remedies to address several issues of “unfair and unbalanced trade.” Issues identified by the Memorandum include:
- The “large and persistent annual trade deficit in goods, as well as the economic and national security implications and risks resulting from such deficits”
- The establishment of and best methods for creating an External Revenue Service to collect tariffs, duties, and other foreign-trade related revenues
- Unfair trade practices and corresponding remedies under applicable authorities The policies and practices of “major” US trading partners with respect to the rate of exchange between their currencies and the US dollar, including “appropriate measures to counter currency manipulation or misalignment” as well as the identification of countries that are “currency manipulators”
- Whether any existing US trade and sectoral trade agreements need revisions “necessary or appropriate to achieve or maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions”
- Whether there are countries with which the United States can negotiate agreements to gain export market access for “American workers, farmers, ranchers, service providers, and other businesses”
- “The application of antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) laws, including with regard to transnational subsidies, cost adjustments, affiliations, and ‘zeroing’”
- Whether existing AD/CVD investigations and administrative reviews are sufficient to “induce compliance by foreign respondents and governments involved in AD/CVD proceedings”
- The loss of tariff revenues and risks relating to the importation of counterfeit products and contraband products under the de minimis exemption
- Whether any foreign country subjects US persons to discriminatory extraterritorial taxes
- The impact of all trade agreements to ensure their implementation “favors domestic workers and manufacturers, not foreign nations”
- How to modify the US export control system in order to “maintain, obtain, and enhance” the US “technological edge,” to “identify and eliminate loopholes in existing export controls” and to “use enforcement policies and practices” to “incentivize compliance by foreign countries”
- Define any appropriate actions with respect to existing controls by the Office of Information and Communication Technology and Services (ICTS) on connected vehicles and whether controls on ICTS transactions should be expanded to account for additional connected products
- Whether Treasury’s final rule to regulate outbound investments includes “sufficient controls to address national security threats” and whether Executive Order 14105, Addressing United States Investments in Certain National Security Technologies and Products in Countries, should be modified, rescinded or replaced
- Whether any foreign governments provided financial contributions—for example, subsidies—to assist foreign bidders on US federal procurement programs