US restores tariffs on Brazil, Argentina metal imports

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump struck back on Monday at what he called unfair policies by Brazil and Argentina, saying he is reinstating tariffs on steel and aluminium from those countries.

“Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies,” which is hurting American farmers, he said on Twitter.

“Effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel & Aluminum that is shipped into the US from those countries.” Trump last year announced global tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium but later approved exemptions for some countries, including Argentina and Brazil which agreed to quotas.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who considers himself an ideological ally of Trump, said he would not hesitate to open a direct line to the White House to resolve the issue.

“I am going to talk to (Economy Minister) Paulo Guedes,” Bolsonaro told reporters in

Brasilia, adding that if needed “I have an open channel with” Trump.

Brazil is the second largest supplier of steel to the US market behind Canada.

And Brazil and Argentina have benefitted from the US trade war with China since they have stepped in to replace American exports of soybeans and other agricultural goods.

Bolsonaro earlier this month met with China’s President Xi Jinping in Brasilia and said the Asian economic power is “becoming more and more part of Brazil’s future.”

Jose Urtubey, spokesman for Argentina’s powerful UIA industrial lobby, said producers in the country will be harmed immediately by the tariffs.

With Argentina’s “lack of competitiveness” as a producer, the fact that the United States had the lowest steel and aluminium tariffs was “beneficial,” Urtubey said.

Brazil has teetered on the brink of recession this year and Argentina is again enmeshed in an economic crisis, which has led to the currencies of both countries weakening against the US dollar.

Bolsonaro’s ultra right government has promised to revive the nation’s flagging economy with a massive stimulus plan, as well as pension and tax reforms, and the central bank has cut the key interest rate more than a dozen times since late 2016.

Trump views those moves as an effort to gain at the expense of the United States.

In his tweets, Trump also called on the Federal Reserve to “likewise act” so other nations no longer “take advantage of our strong dollar by further devaluing their currencies.” Amid a slowing global economy and the impact of Trump’s wide ranging trade offensive, mostly directed against China, the Fed has cut the benchmark interest rates three times this year.

But it has signaled it will stand back before deciding on any further moves.

Despite widespread complaints about the impact of the tariffs on US businesses and consumers, as well as the hit to farmers who have been the target of retaliation from trading partners, Trump claimed in his tweet on Monday that Washington has taken in “massive amounts of money” from the tariffs.

He also claimed that since imposing tariffs at the start of March 2018, US markets were “up as much as 21%.” In fact, the benchmark stock index is up 14 per cent.

American steel has continued to suffer with overall employment edging downward and production halted at blast furnaces last month.

Separately, the World Trade Organization has found the EU has failed to withdraw all subsidies to planemaker Airbus, three people familiar with the matter said, a decision likely to permit the United States to maintain tariffs on European goods.

A new compliance report, to be published on Monday at 4pm in Geneva, found that the Airbus A350 jetliner continues to be subsidised as a result of earlier government loans, they said.

However, the WTO scaled back the amount of harm deemed to have been caused to US rival Boeing by another Airbus plane, the A380 superjumbo, two of the people said. That could theoretically lead to a lowering of the $7.5 billion ceiling for tariffs on EU goods which the trade body has permitted under the dispute, though legal wrangling could put off any recalculation.

None of the parties in the 15-year-old trade case, which involves mutual claims of billions of dollars of subsidies to both planemakers, had any immediate comment.

The United States imposed tariffs on European goods including most Airbus planes and products from cheese to olives and single-malt whisky in October.