Commerce Refuses to Release Auto Section 232 Report; Trump Says Tariff Threat Is Still Real
Congress passed a law in December that gave the Commerce Department a deadline of Jan. 19 to release its report on the national security threat of imported autos and auto parts. On Jan. 21, Commerce told Congress it would not do so. Sen. Pat Toomey, the Pennsylvania Republican who sponsored the provision in the annual spending bill, responded that “the Department of Commerce is willfully violating federal law. This is unacceptable, and my staff and I are evaluating the potential for corrective action to compel the rightful release of this report.”
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The Commerce Department released a statement that said, “Releasing it now would interfere with the President’s ability to protect confidential executive branch communications and could interfere with ongoing negotiations.” The Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel backed the action, saying in a memo that executive privilege protects the confidential report, and that disclosure could impair executive deliberations of how to remedy the national security threat.
President Donald Trump, who is in Davos, Switzerland, said in remarks to The Wall Street Journal that he's given Europe a deadline to reach a trade agreement -- though he declined to say what it is -- and auto tariffs will follow if that deadline is blown. “They know that I’m going to put tariffs on them if they don’t make a deal that’s a fair deal,” he said. White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow had earlier said that the possibility of auto tariffs was past because Trump had not taken action within the time frame required in Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act (see 2001100055). But he had said he couldn't say the danger had passed “forever.”