Trump presses EU to suspend trade curbs on US products
TRADE WAR US President threatens to levy tax on cars unless European Union drops tariffs on American imports MOON TOWNSHIP:
US President Donald Trump renewed his demand Saturday that the European Union halts its trade barriers to US products in order to spare his allies new steel and aluminium tariffs.
The American president made his comments after crunch talks in Brussels between EU negotiators and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in an effort to defuse a bitter row that many fear could turn into an all-out trade war.
The EU’s top trade official said the US failed to provide full clarity on how Europe and Japan could be spared set to continue next week.
“The European Union, wonderful countries who treat the US very badly on trade, are complaining about the tariffs on Steel & Aluminium,” Trump tweeted.
“If they drop their horrific barriers & tariffs on US products going in, we will likewise drop ours. Big Deficit. If not, we Tax Cars etc. FAIR!”
President Donald Trump’s announcement of duties of 25% on imported steel and 10% on aluminium has stung the European Union, along with other major partners including Japan, whose economy minister Hiroshige Seko also attended the talks in Brussels.
“As long-standing security partners of the United States, (the EU and Japan) underlined to ambassador Lighthizer their expectation that EU and Japanese exports to the US would be exempted from the application of higher tariffs,” an EU statement said after the talks.
But after two-way talks with Lighthizer, European Trade commissioner Cecilia Malms- troem tweeted: “No immediate clarity on the exact US procedure for exemption however, so discussions will continue next week.”
Brussels has gone the furthest in fighting back against Washington’s shock measures, loudly announcing a list of US products to hit with countermeasures if its exports are affected by the tariffs.
In announcing the measures, European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker taunted Trump, saying the EU could match “stupid with stupid.”
Trump pushed back as he visited western Pennsylvania, in the heart of US steel country, where he boasted of his tariffs and denounced low-quality imports.
“It’s not good steel — you guys know what I mean. It’s crap,” Trump said, earning cheers from the crowd.
Trump said the move would spur economic growth in the region.
“A lot of steel mills are now opening up because of what I did,” he said. “Steel is back, and aluminium is back.”
China’s trade minister Zhong Shan warned that a trade war with the US would bring disaster to the global economy, but said his nation won’t start one and that talks with the Trump administration continue. “There is no winner in a trade war,” Zhong said in Beijing on Sunday. “A trade war will only bring disaster to China, US and the global economy. China doesn’t want a trade war, and will not start a trade war first. But we can handle any challenge, and will firmly defend the interests of our nation and our people.”
BEIJING: