Another Friday Surprise: Reciprocal Tariff Coverage Modified

Sep. 8, 2025
By: David G. Forgue

Something that we are all learning in the current tariff environment is that Friday afternoon/evening news dumps are now standard operating procedure. The CAFC even picked up on the pattern headed into the U.S. Labor Day weekend. On September 5 we had another example, as the administration modified “reciprocal” IEEPA duties starting September 8, 2025.

The modifications fall into four buckets. First, a number of articles have been added to the duty list. These fall into Chapters 28, 38, and 39. Second, a (larger) number of articles have been added to the Annex II list of goods excluded from “reciprocal” IEEPA duties. These are goods in Chapters 25, 26, 28, 29, 47, 71, 72. 75 and 85. Annex II, with the additions noted, is available here. The third change is Annex III (starting at page 38 here), which sets forth tariff provisions that

are potentially eligible to be exempted from duties imposed by Executive Order 14257, as amended, as determined by the Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative for each trading partner that has concluded an agreement on reciprocal trade, based on the scope and nature of the trading partner’s commitments under that agreement.

Annex III might actually be significant, since it gives a concrete, written set of potential tariff changes for negotiating partners. Whether this list inspires more (or less) deal making is something we will all get to see together.

The fourth change is that the President actually delegated the authority to make changes to effectuate the EU deal. This may indicate that the bones of the EU deal are finally going to be fleshed out with actionable tariff language. This sort of delegation, if used for other trade deals could lead to a much shorter time between the announcement of a deal and actual changes in the tariffs being applied.

As always, the attorneys at Barnes, Richardson & Colburn, LLP stand ready to try to help you make sense of the latest changes. We review these things over the weekends so that you don’t have to.