Trump urged to impose metal tariffs

WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department is urging President Donald Trump to consider hefty tariffs and quotas to limit the import of steel and aluminum, after concluding the rising flow of those foreign-made products constitute a threat to America’s national security.

The recommendations were contained in a report released Friday by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose agency tapped a rarely used provision of U.S. trade law in investigating whether steel and aluminum imports could pose harm to the country’s defense or security interests.

Trump has promised to take more aggressive trade actions to protect American manufacturers, and the findings by Commerce give the president wide discretion to curb imports, although he could decide not to take any action at all. Trump has until mid-April to issue his decision.

Domestic steel and aluminum manufacturers, along with lawmakers from big steel-producing states, have been pressing Trump to apply stiff measures against foreign producers, particularly China.

The Commerce department’s recommendations to Trump listed three options for steel: a 24 percent tariff on all imports from all countries; a targeted tariff of at least 53 percent on imports from a dozen trading partners, plus quotas on steel shipments from other nations; or a global quota that equals 63 percent of each country’s steel exports to the U.S. in 2017.

Ross also recommended three options on aluminum tariffs and quotas, although they were less restrictive.

During a news briefing Friday, Ross would not say which of these options he preferred, noting that Trump would be the “sole judge” of that.