Europe’s top trade official in US for tariff talks

EUROPEAN Union trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem is to hold talks in Washington today and tomorrow over a possible exemption on metals tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump.

Malmstroem, the EU’s top trade official, will meet US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and other officials during the visit, a source close to the European Commission said yesterday.

The visit comes after Trump stunned trading partners earlier this month when he suddenly pledged to impose 25% duties on imported steel and 10% on aluminium.

Malmstroem’s visit comes as German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier arrived in Washington on Sunday to meet US government officials in the hope of ending the feud in which Trump has singled out Germany, the EU’s export powerhouse.

Before leaving for the US, Altmaier said in an interview with the German daily Handelsblatt that the US leader would not succeed in dividing EU countries on the issue of trade. Trump said the shock measures were in response to unfair trade practises, but countries around the world have vowed to retaliate, raising the spectre of a tit-for-tat trade war.

Trump’s taxes are to come into effect on imports worldwide on Friday, with the exception of Canada and Mexico, which have won exemptions from the US. – AFP

Picture: SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES STEELING THEMSELVES: Workers manufacture steel goods at the NLMK Indiana mill in Portage, Indiana, in the US. Steel producers worldwide are preparing for the impact of the recently proposed tariffs by the Trump administration on imported steel