AMERICA FIRST: Trump SLAMS EU, Canada, Mexico with STEEL Tariffs

“If President Trump decides to treat Europe as an enemy, we will have no choice but to defend European industry, European jobs, European interests”, he said.

It’s impossible to say right now exactly how much per cent the price of products with steel and aluminum will increase, but if your weekly run to the grab a 6-pack of beer for the weekend starts costing you more this is why.

With those 30 days now elapsed, the administration has this time gone the other direction and removed the exemptions.

“We will also impose re-balancing measures and take any necessary steps to protect the European Union market from trade diversion caused by these U.S. restrictions”.

The initial tariffs were announced in March by the US President Donald Trump, who claimed that the US had been treated unfairly by its trade partners for years.

The White House defended the move by invoking national security as it stated excessive levels of aluminum and steel imports threatened to impair the security of the United States.

“This is a bad day for world trade”, a visibly irritated Juncker said at that point.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto spoke by phone following the USA announcement. United States and European officials held last-ditch talks in Paris today to try to reach a deal, though hopes are low and fears of a trade war are mounting. “Canada is a secure supplier of aluminum and steel to the USA defense industry, putting aluminum in American planes and steel in American tanks”.

“By targeting those who are not responsible for overcapacities, the United States is playing into the hands of those who are responsible for the problem”.

According to UK Steel – the body which represents steel producers across the country – 7% of steel exports go to the U.S., worth £360m.

The three close US allies had been part of a small group of foreign governments that received temporary exemptions from the tariffs, until trade deals could be signed.

The countries are major USA steel and aluminum suppliers and both considered the threat of tariffs to be an irritant at best, an insult at worst.

Juncker said the European Union will not negotiate under threat.

Ross is scheduled to go to China this weekend for a third round of negotiations. “The fact that we took a tariff action does not mean there can not be a negotiation”. The EU will decide exact countermeasures in coming weeks, according to the French officials.

Foreign minister Chrystia Freeland called it “the strongest trade action Canada has taken in the post-war era”. The EU move could heighten pressure on Washington. American negotiators want more demanding national-content requirements, and a rule that at least 30% of a auto be made by workers earning above a high wage threshold. “There is no longer a very precise date when they will be concluded”, Ross said on Thursday.

Brazil, Argentina and Australia have agreed to limit steel shipments to the U.S.in exchange for being spared the tariffs, the Commerce Department said. But the administration would be able to apply whatever tariffs it liked to auto imports while staying within the letter, if not the spirit, of American law.

Some European business leaders have urged their national leaders to be restrained in response, fearing a tit-for-tat spiral could be triggered quickly.

The tariffs, announced by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a telephone briefing on Thursday, ended months of uncertainty about potential exemptions and suggested a hardening of the Trump administration’s approach to trade negotiations.

“First of all, those who will suffer most are the poorest, the less privileged people, those who actually rely on imported goods to have their living”, she said, adding that longstanding supply chains also would be disrupted.

France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had met with Ross on Thursday in a bid to end the stand-off over steel and aluminium. “We did everything to avoid this outcome”.

The U.S. wanted a NAFTA deal passed under this Congress, but that window is closing.

The steel and aluminum levies and auto import probe could play well with Trump voters in Rust Belt states in the lead-up to congressional midterm elections in November.

Tariffs might protect some jobs in the United States steel industry, but far fewer than the number of jobs that will be lost.