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Trump set to impose 25% tariff on steel imports next week

March 02, 2018 09:30·
Trump set to impose 25% tariff on steel imports next week

Trump set to impose 25% tariff on steel imports next week

Reports indicate he could put tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Canada supplies 16 percent of USA demand for steel, and is by far the top exporter to the nation followed by Brazil and South Korea. Globally, steelmaking capacity has grown 127 percent since 2000 - far faster than demand for steel.

On Thursday, surrounded by executives at the White House, Trump laid out his plan for fighting back.

It noted that 90% of the steel and aluminium it purchases for its USA operations comes from the United States.

He has until April to formally decide whether to support the department's recommendation to impose tariffs. China is not a top 10 supplier of either steel or aluminum.

The move has raised concerns that it could launch a trade war with China.

Trump set to impose 25% tariff on steel imports next week

"Every time you do this, you get a retaliation and agriculture is the No. 1 target", said Sen.

Mr Trump's announcement came after Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull held discussions with Mr Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross last week. On Thursday afternoon, major stock market indexes fell sharply after Trump's announcement, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing down 420 points, or about 1.7 percent.

"We'll be imposing tariffs on steel imports and tariffs of aluminum and you're going to see good things happening....what's been allowed to go on for decades is disgraceful", the president said.

"This is a strong, important step to combat the effects of global steel overcapacity and address actions by other countries to circumvent USA trade laws and orders created to ensure a level playing field", Newport said. We must not let our country, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer. Imported aluminum is even more pervasive: More than 90 percent of the 5.5 million tons of aluminum used in the United States is imported.

Trump has until mid-April to decide what remedies to impose, if any, but any US action is likely to be challenged by exporting nations in the World Trade Organization.

Axel Eggert, director general of the European Steel Association, said European Union steel exports to the US could be slashed in half. The decision followed a Commerce Department investigation into whether steel imports are a national security threat. Seoul and Beijing have condemned the decision and said they would file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO). "Surely this scenario was not what President Kennedy had in mind when he signed the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which contains Section 232", Bhala said.

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