President Trump has now been back in office for three weeks and has certainly been making his mark in international trade, but not all of his actions have gone exactly to plan.

Below is a summary of the official story so far;

1st Feb Executive Order – 25% Duty For Canada and Mexico – POSTPONED
Both of these actions were postponed within 48 hours, after calls with the respective presidents and assurances of improved security at their US borders.

1st Feb Executive Order – 10% Duty hike on imports from China – LIVE
The duty increase went live from 4th February, China has responded by introducing tariff hikes on several US import products.

1st Feb Executive Order – Cancellation of de minimis trade exemption – POSTPONED
This rule enables the importing of goods under $800 in value duty free. Trump cancelled the rule, targeting Chinese e-commerce giants like Temu and Shein, but after it became clear the US Postal Service were unable to manage the duty collections it was postponed until such time as they can. It remains unclear whether this will take days, weeks, months or even a couple of years.

10th Feb Announcement – 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports – DUE TO GO LIVE MAR 12th
Trump announced the tariff this week and said there will be no exceptions, which will impact Canada, Brazil and Mexico the most. Several countries are seeking exemptions, some have suggested retaliatory tariffs.

Of course, there have been many threats that have not become official yet. Last week Trump said that tariff hikes for the EU will ‘definitely happen’, and also suggested that he was confident the UK situation “can be worked out” without tariffs.