Trump links tariff relief to Nafta deal
US President Donald Trump said that Canada and Mexico will get no relief from his new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports unless a ‘new and fair’ agreement is signed.
washington — US President Donald Trump said on Monday that North American neighbours Canada and Mexico will get no relief from his new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports unless a “new and fair” free trade agreement is signed.
The Trump administration says the tariffs are necessary to preserve the American industries — and that doing so is a national security imperative. But Trump’s latest tweets suggest he’s also using the upcoming tariffs as leverage in ongoing talks to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement. The latest round of a nearly yearlong renegotiation effort is concluding in Mexico City.
“Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed,” Trump tweeted. “Also, Canada must treat our farmers much better. Highly restrictive. Mexico must do much more on stopping drugs from pouring into the US. They have not done what needs to be done. Millions of people addicted and dying.”
The tariffs will be made official in the next two weeks, White House officials said on Monday, as the administration defended the protectionist decision from critics in Washington and overseas. Speaking on “Fox and Friends,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said: “25 per cent on steel, and the 10 per cent on aluminium, no country exclusions — firm line in the sand.”
Trump’s pronouncement last week that he would impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminium, roiled markets and rankled allies. The across-theboard action breaks with the recommendation of the Pentagon, which pushed for more targeted tariffs on metals imports from countries like China and warned that a wide-ranging move would jeopardise national security partnerships.
But Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose agency oversaw reviews of the industries that recommended the tariffs, said Sunday ABC’s “This Week” that Trump is “talking about a fairly broad brush”.
Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the sweeping action would let China “off the hook,” adding the tariffs would drive a wedge between the US and its allies. “China wins when we fight with Europe,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “China wins when the American consumer has higher prices because of tariffs that don’t affect Chinese behaviour.”
Trump has threatened to tax European cars if the EU boosts tariffs on American products in response to the president’s plan to increase duties on steel and aluminium. British Prime Minister Theresa May raised her “deep concern” at the tariff announcement in a phone call with Trump Sunday. May’s office says she noted that multilateral action was the only way to resolve the problem of global overcapacity.”
But Ross rejected threats of retaliation from American allies as “pretty trivial” and not much more than a “rounding error.”
And Navarro argued on Monday that “there are virtually no costs here”. “If you put a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium, it’s a cent and a half on a six pack of beer and it’s $25,000 on a $330 million (Boeing 777),” Navarro said. —