Section 232 Watch: Industry Warily Eyes a Slate of Summer Deadlines

International Trade attorney Jonathan Epstein was interviewed for a World Trade Online article summarizing the status of Section 232 investigations on various products and the Trump Administration's response to them. Following President Donald Trump's return to the White House in 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce initiated multiple investigations under Section 232 of the Trade Act of 1962, targeting robotics, industrial machinery and medical devices, among other goods. Upon receiving the reports, the president has 90 days to decide whether to take action; Trump's responses thus far have encompassed both imposing new tariffs and reducing currently imposed duties. Mr. Epstein commented on the president's lack of action regarding commercial aircraft, jet engines and their parts, the statutory deadline for which has now passed. He said "[his] intuition is that they don't want to push it forward" because of a lack of industry support and cited carveouts for aircraft in other parts of the administration's tariff regime as an additional contributing factor.

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