President Trump signed an executive order (EO) offering tariff exemptions to U.S. trading partners who strike deals on industrial imports including, among others, steel, aluminum, copper, iron, and oil, as well as pharmaceutical compounds and chemicals. The EO identifies more than 45 categories for zero import tariffs from “aligned partners” who clinch framework trade agreements to cut the President’s reciprocal tariffs imposed in April and the separate duties that were imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
In the EO, President Trump said that his willingness to reduce tariffs depends on the “scope and economic value of a trading partner’s commitments to the United States in its agreement on reciprocal trade” and U.S. national interests. The exemptions took effect on Monday, September 8, 2025. The EO comes as the Supreme Court weighs whether to take up a Trump Administration appeal of a lower court’s ruling striking down the President’s tariffs imposed pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.