Trump suggests Canada, Mexico could win tariff exemption

Amid speculation that Trump may bow to pressure and amend his tariff plan before it is put into effect in the coming weeks, Navarro reiterated that there would be no country exemptions on the tariffs of 25% on steel and the 10% on aluminum. A break of last month’s peak of 2.957 percent could trigger fresh selling in Treasuries, traders say.

“In West Virginia, we’ve lost thousands and thousands of jobs”, Manchin said.

This followed weekend indications that no countries would be excluded from the tariffs.

The European Union has said it is drawing up measures against leading United States brands like Harley-Davidson and Levi’s jeans. (China is 11th.) If any of them retaliate, both the number and scope of products affected increase.

The proposed tariffs can provide a countervailing force against these foreign subsidies and protect American metal producers until a comprehensive solution is found.

However, Alabama now has 57,000 residents employed in the auto industry, both at factories and suppliers. So while it might affect an individual producer for a little while, overall it’s not going to be much more than a rounding error.

There were differing reactions from Alabama’s automakers. One convincing argument is that the tariffs -whereas they would provide a shield to the United States steel industry – will increase steel prices, which will backfire on consumers and industries using steel, including the auto industry. “Economically, a two-tier market is ultimately damaging to USA downstream industries that consume these metals, as it creates an uneven playing field for United States industries that face higher metal prices”.

“If we see a breakout of action and reaction from major economies, the only thing that will arise from that will be a slowdown in economic growth and over time, if that got bad enough, we could see for example a recession – and we know the consequent impact of that”, he said.

Canfield said Hyundai both imports steel from South Korea into the US for its cars, and uses about half of its steel from USA sources. He said American companies could move their operations overseas and not face retaliatory tariffs.

Kronby also said that Canadian officials may have to impose “safeguard” measures to protect their country’s steel and aluminum industries from being flooded with products originally intended for the United States but diverted to Canada.

“Stocks opened lower on Monday as investors mulled over potential U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs”, the lead sentence of the story stated.

Andrew Coyne offers up this suggestion to the Canadian government: Do nothing, in the short term at least, and rely on those USA interests who would be harmed by the tariffs to make the case against them for us. However, steel tariffs weren’t the only issue Trump commented on affecting the German automaker. By comparison, Europe imposes a 10% tariff on US -built cars, Reuters reports.

GOP congressional leaders said they may seek to prevent the tariffs if the president moves forward.

The EU prepared a $3.45 billion list of US goods to be targeted in retaliation – including USA steel and agricultural products like rice, orange juice and cranberries. Trump announced his plan last week, and an order could be signed within days.

“For decades, the steel industry has battled global overcapacity and the oversupply of US imports, many of them dumped and subsidized”, Newport said.

“Steel is just a tiny input in the USA gross domestic product – which is why it’s so insane”.

Most responses to Trump’s proposed tariffs have been targeted.

“Well I think that we should look at all options in the national interest”, Mr Bowen told ABC radio today.

He said if three-way negotiations involving the U.S., Mexico and Canada don’t work, “we are prepared to move on a bilateral basis”.

Yes, $9 billion is less than 1/20th of 1 percent of a $20 trillion GDP. “It wont hurt us”. Until recently, the inquiry into the national security risks of steel and aluminum had been considered separate from the Nafta discussions.

According to Brookings, 29.1 percent of Decatur’s GDP is export-based, with 7,867 jobs directly related to exports. Harley already is being hit by a deepening slump in USA motorcycle demand, which has spurred job cuts and a plant closure at the Milwaukee-based company. And for Alabama, there’s also potential impact for its aviation and aerospace industries, which also use steel and aluminum.

Senator Orrin Hatch said American citizens would be made to pay, while Senator Ben Sasse agreed that “kooky 18th Century protectionism will jack up prices on American families”. “A certain amount of those jobs could be at risk, if content is priced so high that consumers will no longer be making those purchases”.

Industry bodies such as the US Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association have expressed deep concern.