Tariff Times Daily: Rivian Expands Domestic Production in Partnership with DOE
Vietnam addressed as an egregious actor as Rivian expands its productive capacity inside the United States
THE BOTTOM LINE
The United States Trade representative’s Special 301 designation of Vietnam as a “Priority Foreign Country” is a very welcome development. This designation is reserved for the most egregious actors and opens the door to further Section 301 investigation, much needed considering that particularly since Liberation Day, Vietnam has acted as a transshipment pub for Chinese goods. On Capitol Hill, the China conversation has moved beyond AI model theft toward broader patterns of industrial espionage and IP violations, while the administration’s “Trade Over Aid” initiative shifts engagement with developing countries toward commercial partnerships and private investment. Across the board, the administration is restructuring our international trade relations on a platform that favors American workers and American industry and reduces systematic dependencies for all parties. You can see that the plan is working as U.S Steel yesterday opens a new plant, and today Rivian announces major expansion of productive capacity inside the United States. Tariffs work!
TODAY’S STORIES
Rivian Expands Capacity for Georgia EV Plant
Rivian announced an optimized capacity plan that will provide a fifty percent increase in phase one production capacity, for its Georgia manufacturing complex. Domestic auto assembly capacity is the core of any serious reindustrialization argument, and Georgia’s continued buildout illustrates how state-level industrial policy and federal trade protection are now operating in tandem to keep advanced-vehicle production on American soil.
Senator Bernie Moreno Introduces Act to Ban Chinese Vehicles and Components from U.S. Market
Senators Bernie Moreno of Ohio and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan introduced the Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026, prohibiting the import, sale, and operation of vehicles manufactured in China or other countries of concern, along with Chinese-developed connected vehicle software, data systems, and hardware. The bipartisan structure of the bill, paired with endorsements from UAW President Shawn Fain, General Motors, American Compass, and the CAR Coalition, signals a rare alignment of labor, domestic producers, and the protectionist policy community around a single sectoral defense measure. For the American System tradition the significance is concrete: autos remain the largest industrial supply chain in the country, and a categorical ban on adversary-state vehicles closes the loophole that European and Mexican markets have left open, ensuring that subsidized Chinese capacity cannot attack American consumers and domestic EV companies.
USTR Designates Vietnam a “Priority Foreign Country” for IP, Opens Door to Section 301 Probe
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s annual Special 301 report names Vietnam a Priority Foreign Country, the most severe label in the framework and one that triggers consideration of a Section 301 investigation. For American industrial policy the significance is direct: producers in pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing have long flagged Vietnamese counterfeiting, weak IP enforcement, and transshipment of Chinese goods as a structural cost, and a Section 301 probe would create the legal predicate for sectoral tariff response.
Administration Launches “Trade Over Aid” With Thirty-Five Countries
The administration formally launched its Trade Over Aid initiative this week at the New York Stock Exchange, with thirty-five UN member states signing on. The framework reorients U.S. engagement with developing countries away from traditional aid and toward private-sector investment, commercial partnerships, and market-based reforms. Read alongside the AGOA modernization docket opened last week, this signals a coherent administration thesis: development relationships should be structured around durable commercial ties that also serve American industrial interests, rather than transfers that subsidize state-led economies abroad. This allows the flexibility for policy makers to structure trade relations with these nations in a way that favors the exchange of rare materials and goods that are absolutely critical, while not locking either nation into systemic dependency.
CPA: Capitol Hill’s China Conversation Centers on Trade Theft, Espionage, and IP
The Coalition for a Prosperous America’s latest analysis traces the shift in congressional China hearings from narrow concerns about AI model theft toward the broader and more durable pattern of industrial espionage, technology transfer, and IP violation that has shaped the U.S.-China economic relationship for two decades. The framing matters because it directs legislative energy toward structural remedies, export controls, outbound investment screening, sectoral tariffs, rather than toward narrow firm-level fixes that leave the underlying capacity question unaddressed.
Coalition for a Prosperous America
FEDERAL REGISTER WATCH
Notice: Department of Commerce — Antidumping duty order issued on steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) from Algeria, completing the case after affirmative Commerce and ITC determinations. A new line of structural-steel protection comes online for domestic mills competing against North African subsidized capacity. Read notice
Notice: Department of Commerce — Initiation of countervailing duty investigation on carbon and alloy steel wire rod from Algeria. The second Algeria steel case in a week signals Commerce is treating Algerian steel exports as a coordinated subsidy problem, not a one-off. Read notice
Notice: Department of Commerce — Final affirmative LTFV determination on unwrought palladium from the Russian Federation. A consequential critical-minerals determination that will reset import economics for U.S. autocatalyst and electronics supply chains and accelerate qualification of allied refining capacity. Read notice
Notice: Department of Commerce — Technical corrections to the HTSUS implementing Presidential Proclamation 11021 on steel, aluminum, and copper. The corrections operationalize the April expansion of Section 232 derivative coverage; importers should reread classification schedules immediately. Read notice
Proposed Rule: International Trade Commission — Section 337 adjudication and enforcement amendments to require ownership and financial-interest disclosure by parties and intervenors. A modest but useful transparency reform that limits the ability of foreign-controlled entities to litigate IP disputes in U.S. forums without disclosure. Read notice
ON THE DOCKET
Sunset-review day at the ITC: a six-pack of five-year review windows on China-origin products closes today, with USTR’s AGOA modernization docket and four newly opened ITC sunsets queued behind it.
May 01 (closes today) — ITC: Five-year sunset reviews on six China-origin product orders. Closing today are the comment windows that let domestic producers and trade associations weigh in on whether existing AD/CVD orders should remain in place; failing to file leaves the record incomplete and risks revocation. Wire strand | Mattresses | Vertical shaft engines | Boltless shelving | Steel cylinders | Chassis
May 15 (closes in 14 days) — USTR: AGOA modernization comments. The administration is rewriting the architecture of preference programs for sub-Saharan Africa; domestic producers in textiles, agriculture, and processed minerals have a direct interest in the rules of origin and graduation criteria that emerge. Read notice
Jun 29 (new, closes in 59 days) — ITC: Section 337 adjudication and enforcement disclosure rule. Trade associations representing IP-holding U.S. manufacturers should weigh in on the proposed ownership-disclosure regime. Read notice
Jul 13 (new, closes in 73 days) — ITC: Four newly opened five-year sunset reviews. Comment windows let domestic industries argue for continuation of existing AD/CVD relief; covers steel-sector and chemical orders that protect mature U.S. supplier bases. Steel nails | Steel grating | Welded line pipe | Carbazole violet
ON THE HILL
HEARINGS & MARKUPS
May 08 — House Education and Workforce (field hearing, Indiana): “Protecting Workers and Powering America: The Future of Mining.” Outside the standard W&M/Finance trade calendar, but directly relevant: critical-minerals reshoring depends on workforce capacity in mining states, and the field venue at Vincennes University signals where the administration wants to anchor the conversation. Committee page
BILLS TO WATCH
HR 8615: A bill to combat China’s unfair and non-market-oriented trade practices in shipbuilding. Aims squarely at the most acute strategic-industrial gap in the U.S. economy, where Chinese state-directed capacity has driven domestic shipbuilding into near-dormancy; advances the American System case for protected, restored maritime manufacturing. Status: referred to House Foreign Affairs (April 30). View bill
HR 8621: Requires the State Department to publish an annual list of PRC-origin entities involved in forced-labor mining or environmental harm in specified African countries. A useful complement to UFLPA enforcement, building the evidentiary infrastructure needed to extend forced-labor import restrictions into upstream critical-minerals supply chains. Status: referred to House Foreign Affairs (April 30). View bill
Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026: Passed the House 224-200 on April 30. Directs USTR to negotiate against foreign geographical indication regimes that lock American producers out of common food names abroad. Sits at the intersection of agricultural trade and IP strategy, and pairs with the Vietnam Special 301 designation as a coherent IP posture. Status: passed House. View action
COMMITTEE STATEMENTS
Committees quiet on trade statements this week.
TODAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY
On May 1, 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago, showcasing American industrial supremacy to the world during the McKinley Tariff era; the fair drew twenty-seven million visitors and demonstrated, in steel, dynamos, and machinery, what a high-protection home market could build.