Trump trade offensive endangering workers, businesses, says lobby group
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s escalating trade offensive endangers a growing number of local companies and American jobs, a powerful US business group warned.
But the Trump administration persisted in defending its burgeoning, multi-front trade war, with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross saying the world’s largest economy was robust enough to face the economic blowback.
But the US Chamber of Commerce said key trading partners have hit back against Trump’s aggression with tariffs on US$75 billion in American exports so far.
And although Trump himself denied reports he plans to withdraw from the World Trade Organization, which the US helped create, a media report late Sunday said the White House had drafted legislation that would allow the president to impose tariffs without congressional approval and largely outside WTO rules.
Steep US tariffs on more than US$30 billion in Chinese imports are due to take effect on Friday as retribution for Beijing’s alleged theft of US intellectual property.
Meanwhile, Canada retaliated against US steel and aluminium tariffs by imposing retaliatory duties on US$12.6 billion in American goods starting Sunday. Ottawa targeted American steel and aluminium as well as goods from politically sensitive regions like Florida orange juice and Kentucky bourbon.
That followed EU decision to impose 20 per cent tariffs on over US$3 billion in US goods, including motorcycles, blue jeans and bourbon, as well as orange juice and peanut butter.
Thomas Donahue, president of the influential US Chamber of Commerce, said Monday the tariffs were “simply taxes that raise prices for everyone.”
The US Chamber highlighted vulnerable exports from states that had supported Trump in his surprise 2016 presidential election victory, including US$2.3 billion in Michigan steel and aluminium goods as well as autos, US$1.7 billion in Pennsylvania steel, iron, coffee and baked goods, and US$1 billion in Wisconsin cheese, toilet paper and ginseng.
The US Chamber also published an interactive map on the internet showing the impact of the trade dispute in all 50 states.
The states with the most to lose are Washington, which borders Canada and had US$6.2 billion in threatened exports, coastal energy hub Louisiana, at US$5.9 billion, and California, the nation’s most populous state, with US$5.6 billion, according to the analysis.
But Ross said Monday the American economy had shown no signs of stuttering due to the rising trade barriers, with high capital expenditures, rising capital repatriation and vigorous jobs markets. — AFP