Trump seeking tariffs on up to $60 billion Chinese goods

Where President Trump’s approach is wrong is to use national security as the reason to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Trump signed an order last Thursday to slap a 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum with exemptions for Canada and Mexico.

Mr Ciobo called this mere “paperwork” related to the national security provisions Mr Trump used to review the existing tariff structure – the Section 232 of the American Trade Expansion Act frequently mentioned.

RT: What do you make of these tariff moves by Trump?

This form of processing allows it to be stamped “made in Canada” and could avoid the USA tariff, which is why the federal enforcement officials will need to identify the country of origin of the original steel, said one industry executive who asked that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

This strategic free trade stance is created to monetize the advantage that America has as a result of having the largest and most lucrative consumer market.

For the good, U.S. Steel said Wednesday that it is preparing to restart its steelmaking facilities and one blast furnace at an IL plant as a result. Unfortunately, the South Korean government’s efforts didn’t turn out well, and the tariff regulation will inevitably cause damage to the Korean steel industry. That is the case with the uneven tariff situation with other nations, and quite a few of them are our allies. Based on Bloomberg Economics’ estimates, if the US raises import costs by 10% and the rest of the world retaliates, raising tariffs on USA exports, the cost by 2020 would be 0.5% of global GDP. The move will certainly come as a huge burden to Korean steelmakers. Earlier this year, Trump pulled the USA out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

As The Washington Times reported last December, “India is still using high tariffs and other protectionist measures to keep US manufacturing goods from entering its domestic market”. More to the point, it indicates that the USA can not be trusted – that if it fails to get its way through normal channels, it will invent an excuse. But there is still room for further negotiations.

In the past two decades, production took off as Chinese cities were bulldozed and rebuilt with thousands of new office and apartment towers, shopping malls, bridges and expressways. “That’s why we’re impressing upon the American administration the unacceptable nature of these proposals that are going to hurt them every bit as much as they will hurt us”, Trudeau remarked pointedly. Ultimately, the US president could end up hurting the USA more than any of his foreign individual or multilateral targets.

Trump may impose tariffs on $60 billion of Chinese goods, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing a source who had discussed the issue with the White House.

Mexico, Canada and Australia have been granted an exemption.

Steel producing countries worry not just about lost sales in the USA, but also that steel from other exporting nations will flood in. They recommended tariffs, import quotas or both.

Politicians on the left also point out that a lack of environmental regulations in other countries and the threat that poses for the global environment.

This morning, analysts at Vertical Group announced they’re downgrading shares of U.S. Steel.

“We’ll spend, this year, $5 million on one single environmental investment”, Guge said. There might be some changes in the global economy, depending on how flexibly the new measure will be taken.

“I think the overall idea (with the tariff) is to have a better position in the U.S.”, CSI President and CEO Marcelo Botelho Rodrigues told a gathering of The Press-Enterprise editorial board Friday, March 9. It will arouse retaliation by the countries about upon which these tariffs will be imposed. Disturbing the upstream supply chain could have a significant ripple effect on the products and services Americans depend on each day, raising prices on a broad range of goods. The weekend before the announcement, Ottawa was getting word that Trump was heavily leaning toward including Canada, largely because of concerns steel from China was coming into the USA from Canada. The three major economies take up almost half of South Korea’s total outbound shipments.

Malmstroem held fruitless talks in Brussels on Saturday with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer aimed at defusing the row and avoiding an all-out trade war.

But are Trump’s new tariffs good, bad or just ugly?

Except that our trade deficit with China previous year was $375 billion. The trend will likely continue, as mid-term elections will take place in the USA this year.