OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
8:15 AM – Saturday, September 6, 2025
President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) expanding upon previous presidential actions, offering some tariff exceptions to United States trade partners for certain products.
The new EO, signed on Friday, builds on Executive Order 14257, from April, which declared a national emergency due to large U.S. trade deficits posing threats to the economy and national security. This order meant the U.S. would impose the same tariffs on imports from a country as that country imposes on U.S. goods.
The previous directive noted that the U.S. may reduce or suspend tariffs if a trading partner takes significant reciprocal steps to “align sufficiently with the United States on economic and national security matters.”
Friday’s order will offer tariff cuts as soon as Monday to partnering countries that strike deals on goods in over 45 categories. These are mostly goods “that cannot be grown, mined, or naturally produced in the United States or … produced in sufficient quantities in the United States to satisfy domestic demand.”
“My willingness to reduce the reciprocal tariff to zero percent for a given import or to modify tariffs imposed under section 232 will depend on numerous factors, including the scope and economic value of a trading partner’s commitments to the United States in its agreement on reciprocal trade [and] the national interests of the United States,” Trump said via the EO.
Zero-tariff items include graphite, used for pencils, lubricants and batteries, and nickel, used in stainless steel and rechargeable batteries, according to a White House official.
The Trump administration may also waive tariffs for compounds used in generic pharmaceuticals, including lidocaine, a local anesthetic used to treat insect bites, minor burns and mouth sores, among other applications.
Varying types of gold imports are also covered by the EO, from powders to bullion, at least 99.5% pure gold.
The order also allows tariffs to be waived for light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
After Friday, when the president also signed an EO changing the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to its original name, the Department of War (DOW), Trump has officially signed 200 executive orders so far, in the first year of his second term.
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