Small businesses have taken the new tariff regime to court, days after it took effect. The Section 301 forced-labor tariffs began on July 24, and that same day two small importers sued to block them at the U.S. Court of International Trade, with additional suits following over the weekend. The measure adds a duty of 10 to 12.5 percent on goods from 60 economies that the U.S. Trade Representative found had failed to bar imports made with forced labor. Seventeen economies, among them Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and India, carry the 10 percent rate; most of the rest, including China, Brazil, and Vietnam, carry 12.5 percent; certain products from the European Union, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Switzerland are set relative to the existing duty. The new tariff stacks on the Section 301 duties already applied to Chinese and Brazilian goods, and goods covered by the Section 232 steel, aluminum, and copper tariffs are carved out rather than taxed twice. It replaces the temporary Section 122 surcharge that expired the same day, so there is no gap in coverage. The plaintiffs argue that Section 301 is a country- and practice-specific tool, not authority to tax nearly all imports at flat rates, and they are asking for refunds if the tariffs are struck down.
Sources: U.S. Trade Representative, July 23; Liberty Justice Center, July 24; Global Trade Alert, July 24
ENG A structural engineer says required reinforcing steel was never installed in a Manhattan tower that partially failed. On July 7, columns buckled and floors sagged on the 21st floor of the former Pfizer headquarters at 235 East 42nd Street. GACE Consulting Engineers, the structural engineer of record, now says the reinforcement from the 19th floor to the top of the 21st was never installed during construction. The New York City Department of Buildings has ordered the owner to bring in Thornton Tomasetti for an independent forensic review and stabilization oversight, with Special Testing and Consulting as third-party inspector, and the Department of Investigation has opened a parallel inquiry. Civil enforcement waits on the findings, and a root cause is not yet established.
Source: Engineering News-Record, July
ENG A new paper argues that the space between structural and fire engineering is where buildings fail. The CROSS-UK topic paper “Mind the Gap,” published July 27, makes the case that major building failures rarely trace to a single error and instead build up through a chain of assumptions and omissions across disciplines. It names six sources of the gap: legislation, guidance, scope of services, insurance, competence, and industry coordination. Structural fire safety depends as much on communication and clear accountability as on technical calculation, and the exposure grows as performance-based design spreads to more complex buildings.
Source: Fire Safety Matters, July 27
ENG Six Interstate 94 bridges in western Wisconsin are heading into rehabilitation, and the comment window is open now. WisDOT is taking public input through Friday, August 7, on rehabilitating six 1960s-era I-94 bridges in Eau Claire County that carry the interstate over Highway 37, the Chippewa River, and its overflow channel. The scope covers new expansion joints and abutment backwalls, concrete deck overlays on the river structures, surface repairs across all six, high-friction surface treatment, bearing cleaning and painting, and updated approach guardrails, with construction set for 2028 and 2029 behind median crossovers that keep traffic moving.
Source: WEAU, July 25
BIZ Minnesota’s highways rank 11th in the country, and the state gets there on comparatively lean spending. The Reason Foundation’s 29th Annual Highway Report places Minnesota 11th overall on condition and cost-effectiveness, down from 7th the prior year. The detail that matters for firms sits underneath the headline: Minnesota ranks 1st nationally on the urban fatality rate and 11th on structurally deficient bridges, while ranking 32nd on capital and bridge spending and 43rd on maintenance spending per mile. A July 27 Washington Post editorial drew on the same report to argue that higher spending does not reliably buy better roads, noting that poor pavement is concentrated in a handful of states.
Sources: Reason Foundation, 29th Annual Highway Report; Washington Post, July 27
WORKFORCE The engineering job market has tightened, and civil is holding up better than most. New hiring for engineering roles fell about 25 percent between December 2019 and April 2026, the steepest drop among the 20 most common majors, according to labor-market data reported by Forbes. The losses concentrate in aerospace, chemical, and computer or software engineering, each down about a quarter, with AI-driven tech layoffs a major driver. Civil engineering fell about 16 percent, below the all-major average, helped by construction and data-center demand and by graduates who move across roles, and field-engineer hiring is running above pre-pandemic levels.
Source: Forbes, July 25
Build your bench: ACEC Minnesota’s Leadership Development Series for mid-career professionals runs September 2026 through April 2027 in a 24-person cohort, and the four-session Emerging Leaders program for early-career staff runs this October and November.
The (Almost) Daily Brief publishes most weekdays: policy, funding, workforce, and industry news for Minnesota’s engineering firms, in a few minutes of reading.
