Last week, the U.S. exempted 39 types of goods from reciprocal tariffs, including some metals and pharmaceuticals, while imposing additional reciprocal tariffs on 8 categories of goods such as aluminum hydroxide. U.S. Customs has strengthened import inspections, with a focus on cracking down on transshipment fraud, and tightened rules of origin, requiring goods to meet a 70% local value content requirement. Additionally, the U.S. plans to impose an extra port fee on Chinese ships starting in October, which is expected to bring significant cost pressure to Chinese shipping companies.

The EU is considering imposing secondary sanctions on countries that purchase Russian oil, and may follow the U.S. in levying high tariffs on China, India and other countries. Mexico announced that it will impose tariffs of up to 50% on 1,371 tariff code items from countries that have not signed a free trade agreement with it (including China), covering industries such as automobiles, steel and textiles.

Meanwhile, China and the U.S. will hold trade negotiations in mid-September to discuss issues such as tariffs, national security and economic cooperation. If the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately rules that the tariffs are illegal, the U.S. government may need to refund half of the tariffs already collected.