Trump administration ponders a global tariff of at least 24% in a mad effort reduce the trade deficit and save jobs.
The prospect of a global trade war is high and rising as U.S. Weighs Tariffs and Quotas on Steel, Aluminum Imports.
The Trump administration on Friday said it was weighing broad-based tariffs and quotas to curb imports of steel and aluminum to protect national security, though officials stressed no final decisions had yet been made and the ultimate policy could be considerably more limited.
The recommendations suggest the president choose among several options. One of them is a global tariff of at least 24% on all steel imports from all countries. Another is a tariff of at least 53% on steel imports from a dozen countries. Under the latter, targeted option, the tariffs of 53% would be applied on steel from Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.
The report from the Commerce Department also included, as an alternative, a quota on steel products from countries equal to 63% of the countries’ 2017 exports to the U.S.
In a White House meeting Tuesday with members of Congress to discuss the possible measures, Mr. Trump faced considerable resistance from fellow Republicans skeptical of the justification for new import curbs, and worried about the impact.
But in the wide-ranging, 50-minute discussion, Mr. Trump regularly refuted the skeptics, suggesting he wasn’t so worried about costs, and would prefer a fairly broad curb. “You may have a higher price… but you’re going to have jobs,” Mr. Trump said at one point. “To me, jobs are very important.”
Economic Madness
The tariffs are economic madness.
The immediate casualty of this round of proposed tariffs is the US auto industry still sitting on massive inventory despite a huge hurricane-related replacement boom.
Last month, Trump put tariffs on solar panels and washing machines. Here’s the irony: The Solar Companies Behind Tariff Increases are Foreign-Owned.
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