Trump’s steel tariff plan called disruptive

US President Donald Trump’s announcement on Thursday of tariffs on imported steel and aluminum has sparked concerns about a potential trade war, a disruption of the global trading system and harm to the US economy.

Trump said he will sign measures next week for the United States to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports “for a long period of time”.

“We’re going to build our steel industry back and our aluminum industry back,” he said.

Trump announced the tariffs during a hastily arranged meeting in the White House with steel and aluminum executives, and the timing of the announcement surprised Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 420 points, or 1.68 percent, with analysts saying investors fear retaliation by other countries and higher inflation.

The New York Times reported that Trump also said on Thursday that he did not want any nation to be exempted from the order.

Some US allies, including Canada, Japan and South Korea, are among the 10 biggest sources of steel for the US. China is the 11th biggest exporter to the US, accounting for 2 percent of US steel imports. And China is the third largest aluminum exporter to the US.

Canada and the European Union and others have already vowed to retaliate against the US tariffs, a decision based on an investigation under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962 that found steel and aluminum imports pose a national security threat to the US.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing on Thursday that the US’ “unreasonable and excessive” use of trade remedy measures will not help revitalize relevant industries at home, but rather, it will affect its employment and jeopardize the welfare of American consumers.