US allies seek exemptions from m Trump’s tariffs order

Tokyo, Brussels say exports not a security threat

From Japan and South Korea to Australia and Europe, officials lined up on Friday to seek exemptions from President Donald Trump’s tariffs on US steel and aluminum imports.

Tokyo and Brussels rejected any suggestion that their exports to the US threatened its national security – Trump’s justification for imposing the tariffs despite warnings at home and abroad that they could provoke a global trade war.

Trump signed an order for the 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent for aluminum at the White House on Thursday to counter cheap imports.

However, he said “real friends” of the US could win waivers from the measures, which will soon come into force. In the event he exempted Canada and Mexico, fellow members of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which he is trying to renegotiate.

Brazil, which after Canada is the biggest steel supplier to the US market, said it wanted to join the list.

“We will work to exclude Brazil from this measure,” Brazilian acting Trade Minister Marcos Jorge said after meeting US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Argentina made a similar case.

Japan, the US’ top economic and military ally in Asia, was next in line. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that Japan’s steel and aluminum shipments posed no threat to US national security.

With Japan a major trade partner and international investor, Suga said that, on the contrary, they contributed greatly to employment and industry in the US. Japan’s steel industry body also expressed concern.

The EU, the world’s biggest trade bloc, chimed in. “Europe is certainly not a threat to American internal security so we expect to be excluded,” European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom said in Brussels.

Malmstrom told reporters the EU was ready to complain to the World Trade Organization, and retaliate within 90 days. She will meet US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Japanese Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko in Brussels on Saturday when she will ask whether the EU is to be included in the tariffs.

Other officials at the EU, by far the biggest trading partner of the US by value, have warned it could take counter-measures including European tariffs on US oranges, tobacco and bourbon.

China will take effective measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests after the US announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, a Chinese Ministry of Commerce official said on Friday.

US President Donald Trump signed two proclamations on Thursday (US time), imposing a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum products from all countries except Canada and Mexico.

The US is using national security as an excuse to implement trade protectionism, said Wang Hejun, head of the ministry’s trade remedy and investigation bureau.

Most of the US steel and aluminum imports are commercial products, far from being harmful to US national security, Wang was quoted as saying in a statement on the ministry’s website.

“Abusively invoking national security destroys multilateral trade systems represented by the WTO and will have a huge impact on the international trade order. Thus, China firmly opposes the US move,” he said.

Wang pointed out that China has noticed that many WTO members, including the EU, Brazil, South Korea and Russia, have expressed their opposition to the US and announced they would take countermeasures for the wrongdoing. China has expressed its stance and concerns, and has lodged serious representations with the US, he said.

Wang stressed that the US move would not only harm other countries’ interests but also does not conform to its own interests, as reflected by strong disagreement from US legislators, industry organizations and corporations.

China sincerely urges the US to respect the authority of multilateral trade systems and to annul the move as soon as possible.

Both the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) and China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) expressed their strong opposition on Friday.

The CISA said that “this move will harm the global steel industry, and seriously hurt consumers’ interests, especially US consumers.”

Meanwhile, the nonferrous metals association called for retaliatory measures on scrap aluminum, coal, agricultural products from the US.