§2134 Two-year residual authority to negotiate duties

Summary

When the President decides that U.S. or foreign import duties are unfairly hurting U.S. trade and that changing them would help, the President can make trade agreements with other countries or their agencies. The President can also announce changes to tariffs, keep duty-free or excise treatment in place, or add duties as needed to carry out those agreements. There are limits. In any 1-year period, agreements cannot cut duties or keep duty-free treatment for goods that make up more than 2 percent of U.S. import value. No duty can be cut below 80 percent of its current rate. Rates also cannot be set lower or higher than the rates that would result from using the maximum authority in section 2111, and intermediate stage reductions are limited to 20 percent per stage with final rates not below 80 percent of the final stage in section 2111. To simplify duty math, the President may exceed those limits by up to the smaller of the gap to the next lower whole number or 0.5 percent. Trade agreements under this authority can only be made during the 2-year period that starts right after the period for section 2111 agreements ends.