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White House trade adviser Peter Navarro says that the administration’s recently announced Section 301 trade investigations into more than 80 countries, which could result in new tariffs, do not have “predetermined” outcomes.
“Nothing’s predetermined,” Navarro said when asked March 25 whether Section 301 tariffs — a more traditional approach to trade barriers than the now-repealed executive order President Donald Trump used last year — would be used to restore enforcement of frameworks established last year between the Trump administration and various trade partners. “It’s all about the negotiation,” he added, during a public interview at an economic policy summit hosted by Politico in Washington, D.C.
However, in response to a follow-up question on whether the U.S. is already renegotiating the agreements it touted last year, Navarro denied that the administration would seek to change those frameworks but then suggested that talks with various countries remain fluid.
“We’re not. There’s deals that are being made. And the important thing is that when the deal gets made, there may be a lower rate of the tariffs that everybody else gets, but we get things in return, and it’s bespoke. It’s customized depending on the country at hand and depending on what their strong suits are.”
Grant Thornton insight:
The Trump administration used IEEPA tariffs to negotiate several unusual trade frameworks with various countries (and the European Union) during 2025. Unlike standard free trade agreements, like the update to the North American Free Trade Agreement initiated and completed during the first Trump administration, these frameworks do not contain binding legal changes to U.S. policy, though in some cases do require parliamentary approval from trade partners.
Most notably the European Parliament, which on March 26 advanced measures to lower tariffs on U.S. industrial products imported to the bloc, initially paused its portion of the U.S.-EU framework over President Donald Trump’s rhetoric around Greenland in January. Then the parliament again paused consideration after the Supreme Court’s Feb. 20 ruling against the administration’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs on products from the EU and other countries.
If approved and unrevised by all 27 member states, the framework would maintain U.S. tariffs on EU imports at either a 15% baseline or the most-favored nation rate, whichever is higher (generally the 15%). That tariff was originally set under IEEPA, meaning the U.S. does not currently tariff EU products at 15% as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling. The Section 301 tariffs appear aimed at replicating the rates set by those IEEPA tariffs, though Navarro indicated they were subject to change due to continued negotiation with countries.
In its ratification of the previously announced trade framework, the European Parliament included a ‘sunrise clause’ stating that its lowering of tariffs on U.S. products would not take effect unless the 15% baseline rate for EU imports into the U.S. also covered EU products that contain less than 50% steel and aluminum, which are currently tariffed at a 50% rate under duties raised by the Trump administration last year.
A threatened increase of a broader 10% tariff (see below) by the U.S. could also lead to the EU reverting back to its prior treatment of U.S. imports.
Navarro also indicated that the administration will fulfill Trump’s promise to raise the baseline Section 122 tariff he ordered Feb. 20, temporarily replacing the universal 10% tariff struck down by the Supreme Court. Trump said in a social media post Feb. 21 that the Section 122 tariff, which began at 10%, would be raised to its statutory maximum of 15%.
“It has happened,” said Navarro, in response to a question about when the tariff — which will expire after 150 days — would be raised the additional 5%. “At least it’s in process to happen,” he quickly added.
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