Asia on edge as Trump slaps hefty tariff on steel, aluminum
SEOUL/SYDNEY (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on steel and aluminum would distort global trade and cost jobs, Australia’s trade minister said yesterday, highlighting the risk of retaliatory measures as Asian exporters sought more detail on the plans.
Fears of an escalating trade war roiled Asian market, hitting the share prices of Asian steelmakers and manufacturers supplying US markets particularly hard on Friday following a rough night on Wall Street.
Trump said the duties of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum would be formally announced next week, although White House officials later said some details still needed to be ironed out.
“The imposition of a tariff like this will do nothing other than distort trade and ultimately, we believe, will lead to a loss of jobs,” Australian trade minister Steven Ciobo told reporters in Sydney.
“My concern remains that on the back of actions like this we could see retaliatory measures that are put in place by other major economies. That is in noone’s interest.”
Australia, which has champi- oned the free-trade Trans Pacific Partnership that Trump pulled the United States out of, has sought an exemption for its steel and aluminum to the United States, Ciobo added.
Steel has become key focus for Trump, who pledged to restore the US industry and punish what he sees as unfair trade practices, particularly by China.
Although China only accounts for two percent of US steel imports, its massive industry expansion has helped produce a global glut of steel that has driven down prices.
“The impact on China is not big,” said Li Xinchuang, vice secretary-general of the China Iron and Steel Association. “Nothing can be done about Trump. We are already numb to him.”
South Korea, the third-largest steel exporter to the United States after Canada and Brazil, said it will keep talking to US officials until Washington’s plans for tariffs are finalized.
“For us, the worst case scenario was a 54 percent tariff,” said a South Korean trade ministry official who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to media. “Still if the option for a global tariff of at least 24 percent is taken, that will still affect our steel exports to the US”
South Korean trade minister Kim Hyun-chong has been in the United States since Feb. 25, the trade ministry said. Kim has met US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and other officials to raise concerns over the so-called Section 232 probe and consider a plan that would minimize the damage to South Korean companies.