The three day pause on the 50 percent Canadian duties ran out at one minute past midnight, and the proclamation that granted it is still the newest thing on the trade record
The pause is over.
It ended at one minute past midnight eastern this morning, by the terms of the proclamation that granted it, and the additional 50 percent ad valorem duties on certain Canadian goods took effect at that moment. They come from three proclamations signed on 20 July under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930: 11046 on alcoholic beverages, 11047 on dairy and 11048 on motor vehicles, published on 23 July at 91 FR 46639, 46653 and 46663. Each carries its own Annex II, and the product lists reach a good deal further than those three headings.
This publication covered the suspension on 20 August, when the signed document had no number. It has one now. The Federal Register received it at 11:15 on Friday morning as Proclamation 11056 and scheduled it for publication on 24 August, which is Monday, two days after the thing it suspended came back. The text as filed is the text as signed. One date in the chapeau of Annex II of each of the three July proclamations is deleted and another is written in. The rate is untouched. The lists are untouched.
What the record does not contain
An agreement.
Paragraph 4 of the proclamation is the only place the document describes where the negotiation stood, and it is written at two removes: senior executive branch officials provided information and opinions, and according to those officials Canada has expressed a commitment to remove the impositions at issue. A commitment reported by officials is not a settlement, and the proclamation does not describe what would be removed, or by when, or by whom.
Nothing has been added to that since. The White House index of presidential actions carries no Canada item after 18 August, and its newest entry of any kind is a national space transportation policy dated 20 August. The Federal Register's published documents for 21 and 24 August carry no Customs and Border Protection notice modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule for these duties, which paragraph (3) of the proclamation directs the Commissioner to issue if further modifications turn out to be necessary.
That is a statement about the paper trail rather than about the negotiation. Two governments can reach an understanding days before either publishes anything, and a suspension can be granted again on any morning the President chooses, because Section 338 lets him suspend, revoke, supplement or amend a proclamation made under it whenever he deems the public interest requires it. He used that power on 18 August. He has not used it since.
