US slaps allies with tariffs
washington — The Trump administration announced on Thursday it will impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Europe, Mexico and Canada after failing to win concessions from the American allies. Europe and Mexico pledged to retaliate quickly, exacerbating trans-Atlantic and North American trade tensions. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the tariffs would be 25 per cent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, effective Friday.
washington — The Trump administration announced it’s imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium imported from the European Union, Canada and Mexico, in a move almost certain to trigger retaliation by America’s closest allies.
The decision came hours before temporary exemptions were due to elapse at 12:01am in Washington on Friday. The move marks the Trump administration’s most aggressive trade action yet against major US trading partners, which had been asking for permanent relief.
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said there wasn’t enough progress in discussions with the EU over trade concessions and Canada and Mexico on rewriting the North American Free Trade Agreement to give them permanent exemptions from the metals tariffs.
“We continue to be quite willing and eager to have further discussions with all of those parties,” Ross told reporters on a conference call on Thursday. “We are awaiting their reaction.”
Stocks in the US fell as the administration ignored the pleas from business lobbying groups including the US Chamber of Commerce to forego tariffs.
Ross said he’s looking forward to “continued negotiations” with Canada, Mexico and EU “because there are other issues” that need to be resolved. There’s potential “flexibility” in the future because the president has the power to increase or cut tariffs, remove them, or enact quotas, he said. Fears of a global trade war are mounting as the Trump administration also considers tariffs on US auto imports and duties on $50 billion in Chinese goods. The International Monetary Fund has warned that a wave of protectionist forces are the biggest risk to the global economic outlook.
The EU had said it wouldn’t make trade concessions to gain a permanent exemption, and vowed to respond firmly to the imposition of tariffs.