December 17, 2025 —
CIT Denies Injunction Against Liquidation in IEEPA Refund Cases
The U.S. Court of International Trade on Monday rejected a bid by dozens of companies to stop the final processing of President Donald Trump’s “emergency” tariffs, saying the move would not jeopardize access to potential refunds.
In a unanimous opinion, the three-judge panel said the importers failed to show they would suffer irreparable harm if U.S. Customs and Border Protection continues processing fees that importers paid for tariffs now being challenged at the Supreme Court, because the court can still reopen those entries and order refunds later.
The court also denied a request from retail giant Costco and other importers to hear oral arguments on their request as soon as Monday.
The ruling stressed that “liquidation” — the formal process of finalizing tariff bills and transferring the funds into the U.S. Treasury — does not carry its usual finality in this case because the companies are challenging the legality and constitutionality of the duties themselves, as opposed to a routine customs decision. Since CBP is merely collecting the duties and has no authority to rule on the lawfulness of the tariffs, the court said it can still step in later to reopen entries and order refunds if the Supreme Court ultimately strikes them down.
The Supreme Court is currently considering whether Trump has the legal authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 emergency powers law that has never been used to levy duties. The Trump administration has justified its “reciprocal” tariffs on major trading partners by citing a national emergency over the country’s trade deficit. The president has also raised duties on China, Canada and Mexico under the law.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case in the coming weeks.
USTR Meets with Congress on USMCA
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will hold a closed-door briefing this week for the Senate Finance Committee on the administration’s objectives for next year’s review of the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement.
The briefing is meant to fulfill a requirement Congress included in its 2000 approval of the North American trade agreement, instructing the executive branch report on the review, according to two committee aides.
Greer has “informed the committee that USTR is intending for this member meeting/oral briefing to satisfy their requirement to ‘report’ to the appropriate congressional committees,” said one of the aides, who were both granted anonymity to discuss the details of the closed-door meeting.
The Trump administration is preparing for a mandatory review of the trade pact, which President Donald Trump negotiated during his first term, due in July 2026. Greer, who helped negotiate the agreement as chief of staff to then-U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, has interpreted the provision to mean that a closed-door, oral briefing would meet the requirements, over the objections of some Democrats, who had expected a written report.
Greer is also meeting with the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday afternoon.
Per the requirement set by Congress, Greer must give members the Trump administration’s position on whether the agreement should be renewed for another 16-year term, as well its “precise recommendation for action to be proposed at the review.”
USTR will also have to transmit the views on the review from two dozen private sector advisory committees established by Congress. Those cover a wide array of U.S. agricultural and industrial sectors, as well labor and environmental interests.
Commerce Issues Request for New 232 Inclusion Requests
The Commerce Department will on Jan. 1 begin a two-week window for requests for new products to be included under Section 232 tariffs on auto parts, it said in a notice released Dec. 15. Inclusion requests will be accepted by 11:59 p.m. ET on Jan. 14, after which the agency will post the inclusion requests it receives for comment and begin a 60-day process to consider whether to grant the inclusions.
The agency had originally said it would begin its first inclusion process for auto parts Oct. 1 but never did so amid a government shutdown that lasted over six weeks. Commerce has said it will open inclusion processes four times a year, in January, April, July and October.
Accepted inclusion requests will be posted for the two-week public comment period on docket ITA-2025-0039 on Regulations.gov. For the first round of inclusions for Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum — the only inclusions process that the administration has completed — Commerce’s eventual additions to the tariffs took effect about three-and-a-half months after the initial request for submissions.
Port of LA Sees Export Reductions
The Port of Los Angeles is on pace for its first year-over-year decrease in exports since 2020 as American businesses continue to face retaliation from the Trump administration’s tariff policy, its executive director said this week.
Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said during a media briefing that the nation’s busiest port handled 114,000 outbound containers in November, an 8 percent decline compared to the same period last year.
He projected an overall annual decline compared to 2024 once December data is tallied, noting that year-over-year exports have been down in seven of 11 months this year.
“We’re also seeing the effects of retaliatory tariffs and third-country trade deals on U.S. [agriculture] and manufacturing exports,” Seroka said. “This is a headwind we may face for some time to come.”
The decline in agricultural and manufactured goods leaving the Los Angeles port complex is the most apparent negative consequence of the Trump administration’s ongoing trade conflict with governments worldwide.
Imports at the Port of Los Angeles have largely remained stable after imports sharply declined in May, after the Trump administration imposed a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods. The number of inbound containers has tapered following a record-breaking July where the facility moved over 1 million containers — but the port is still on pace to match its overall productivity in 2024, before President Donald Trump returned to office.
EU Seeks Steel and Aluminum Exemptions
The European Commission is prioritizing getting products containing steel and aluminum, certain types of machinery, and medical devices exempted from U.S. tariffs in its talks with the Donald Trump administration, Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told POLITICO.
In an interview this week, the trade chief singled out steel and Washington’s expanding list of “derivative” products containing steel and aluminum — which are subject to a 50 percent tariff — as a priority area where the two sides needed to move forward.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters in early December that Brussels hadn’t yet presented its wish list because, for sequencing reasons, it should first fulfil its side of the bargain. This would require the support of EU member countries and the European Parliament to take effect, which is not expected until early 2026.
The Commission did, however, present “broad categories of where we want to lower the tariffs” to Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick when they visited Brussels in late November, Šefčovič said.
These issues also featured during a visit by Commission officials to Washington last week that was overshadowed by controversy over the EU’s enforcement of its digital rules. Brussels had just imposed a €120 million fine on social media platform X under the EU’s Digital Services Act, the bloc’s flagship content moderation law. The fine drew the wrath of top U.S. officials, such as Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Mexico Increases Tariffs
Mexico’s Senate this week voted 76-5, with 35 abstentions, to approve new higher tariffs on a range of products imported from China and other countries that don’t have free trade agreements with Mexico, according to an unofficial translation of the Senate’s news release.
The measures are set to increase most tariffs up to 35%, but also as high as 50%, through 2026 on automobiles, auto parts, textiles, clothing, plastics and steel from China and other Asian countries, Reuters reported. Those other nations include India, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.
UK Moves to Combat Chinese Overcapacity
The British government is working to give its trade chief new powers to move faster in imposing higher tariffs on imports, as it faces pressure from Brussels and Washington to combat Chinese industrial overcapacity.
Under new rules drawn up by British officials, Trade Secretary Peter Kyle will have the power to direct the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) to launch investigations and give ministers options to set higher duty levels to protect domestic businesses.
The trade watchdog will be required to set out the results of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations within a year, better monitor trade distortions and streamline processes for businesses to prompt trade probes.
The U.K. is in negotiations with the U.S. and the EU to forge a steel alliance to counter Chinese overcapacity as the bloc works to introduce its own updated safeguards regime. The EU is the U.K.’s largest market and Brussels is creating a new steel protection regime that is set to slash Britain’s tariff-free export quotas and place 50 percent duties on any in excess.
The government said its directive to the TRA will align the U.K. with similar powers in the EU and Australia and follow World Trade Organization rules. It is set out in a Strategic Steer to the watchdog and will be introduced as part of the finance bill due to be wrapped up in the spring.
