U.S. eases way to more tariff exemptions under pressure from allies

[rooster59]

U.S. eases way to more tariff exemptions under pressure from allies

By Lindsay Dunsmuir, Robin Emmott and Ruby Lian

 

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a proclamation during a White House ceremony to establish tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis

 

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The United States opened the way for more exemptions from its steel and aluminum tariffs on Friday, after pressure from allies and intense lobbying from lawmakers, further diluting the measures just a day after they were formally announced.

 

President Donald Trump, who has broad powers to impose the tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum, at the outset granted exemptions to Canada and Mexico, and said there would be the possibility of industry exemptions, although he has not been specific.

 

After Trump opened the door, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Europe clamored for special treatment, while Chinese producers called on Beijing to retaliate in kind.

 

Trump tweeted on Friday that he spoke with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about trade and military cooperation.

"Working very quickly on a security agreement so we don’t have to impose steel or aluminum tariffs on our ally, the great nation of Australia!" Trump said.

 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin earlier said he expects countries in addition to Mexico and Canada to be exempted in the next couple of weeks.

 

When proposed tariffs were initially announced, stock markets went into a tail spin on concerns they would ignite a global trade war.

But since Trump signaled that exemptions were possible, reaction has been measured, and counter threats have been carefully calibrated so far.

 

Those threats have been overblown, according to Dani Rodrik, professor of international political economy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and one of the world's leading experts on trade.

 

"The reality is that Trump’s trade measures to date amount to small potatoes. In particular, they pale in comparison to the scale and scope of the protectionist policies of President Ronald Reagan’s administration in the 1980s," Rodrik wrote on Friday.

 

CHINA VOW

 

Tokyo and Brussels rejected any suggestion that their exports to the United States threatened the country's national security - Trump's justification for imposing the tariffs despite warnings at home and abroad that they could provoke a global trade war.

"We are an ally, not a threat," European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said.

 

China's metals industry issued the country's most explicit threat yet in the row, urging the government to retaliate by targeting U.S. coal - a sector that is central to Trump's political base and his election pledge to restore American industries and blue-collar jobs.

 

Brazil, which after Canada is the biggest steel supplier to the U.S. market, said it wanted to join the exemption list, and Argentina made a similar case.

 

Japan, the United States' top economic and military ally in Asia, was next in line. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that Japan's steel and aluminum shipments posed no threat to U.S. national security.

 

The European Union, the world's biggest trade bloc, chimed in. "Europe is certainly not a threat to American internal security so we expect to be excluded," European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in Brussels.

 

Malmstrom told reporters the EU was ready to complain to the World Trade Organization, and retaliate within 90 days. She will meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Japanese Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko in Brussels on Saturday when she will ask whether the EU is to be included in the tariffs.

 

Malmstrom won support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Shares in European steel makers fell, although Germany's two biggest producers, Thyssenkrupp <TKAG.DE> and Salzgitter <SZGG.DE>, have insisted the impact on them will be limited.

 

The target of Trump's ire is China, whose capacity expansions have helped add to global surpluses of steel. China is also the potential target of far more wide-ranging U.S. action over what Washington says is its theft of intellectual property and coercion of U.S. firms to share commercial secrets.

 

Beijing vowed to "firmly defend its legitimate rights and interests." Tariffs would "seriously impact the normal order of international trade," the Commerce Ministry said.

 

Last year, China imported 3.2 million tonnes of U.S. coal, worth about $420 million and nearly five times the amount it took in 2016. Trump has championed coal exports as demand from power firms at home weakens.

 

The dispute has fueled concerns that soybeans, the United States' most valuable export to China, might be caught up in the row after Beijing launched an inquiry into imports of U.S. sorghum, a grain used in animal feed and liquor.

 

South Korea, the third-largest steel exporter to the United States and a strategic ally on the Korean peninsula, called for calm. "We should prevent a trade war situation from excessive protectionism, in which the entire world harms each other," Trade Minister Paik Un-gyu told a meeting with steelmakers.

 

While carrying a message to Washington to push forward a diplomatic breakthrough over North Korea, South Korea's national security office chief Chung Eui-yong asked U.S. officials to support Seoul's request for a waiver, a presidential spokesman said.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-10

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

The European Union, the world's biggest trade bloc, chimed in. "Europe is certainly not a threat to American internal security so we expect to be excluded," European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in Brussels.

While economy is only one part of the EU, this situation is an example that the size matters.

 

Separate European countries would have difficulties to put pressure to USA, but what EU says as a block, really matters. 

 

 

[boomerangutang]

without consulting with his aides, and giving none of them any advance notice, Trump elicits a massive mouth fart, ........now feds are scrambling around trying to do damage control - and other countries are gearing up for trade retaliations.  

 

.....and this is the dufus who is going to negotiate with N.Korea's Kim?  Lordy lordy.

 

 

Edited March 10, 2018 by boomerangutang

[spidermike007]

Nobody in his administration seemed to like the plan, and none of his fellow republicans seemed to like it either. It is just another example of his tendency to placate his fans, and devotees. It does not matter if the policy makes sense, or if the policy hurts the nation, which this one would. It is all about maintaining the popularity of the Little Don show. If there is one thing for certain, this is not a presidency, nor a president. This is a reality TV show, and he is the host of his own show. The presidency and the nation are secondary. 

[ballpoint]

3 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

without consulting with his aides, and giving none of them any advance notice, Trump elicits a massive mouth fart, ........now feds are scrambling around trying to do damage control - and other countries are gearing up for trade retaliations.  

 

.....and this is the dufus who is going to negotiate with N.Korea's Kim?  Lordy lordy.

 

 

Trump's the type of negotiator who, after being offered a shirt for $50 at a market, negotiates for half an hour and ends up paying $100 for it.

[Srikcir]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin earlier said he expects countries in addition to Mexico and Canada to be exempted in the next couple of weeks.

Exempted in a couple of days:

Trump signs steel and aluminum tariffs that exempt Canada and Mexico and leave door open to other countries

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/08/trump-signs-tariffs-that-exempt-canada-and-mexico-open-door-to-others.html

Before it took a week to reverse his executive actions. Now it's down to mere days.

Same time it took Trump to reverse his planned meeting with Kim Jong-Un.

What's next, reversals within hours? Minutes?

During his campaign he reversed himself even within several sentences. How much longer can his base believe Trump?

[boomerangutang]

After all the exemptions, Trump's stupid tariff edict will likely wind up targeting just a few countries.  It's going to make those non-exempted countries annoyed, and will certainly get them to join in a trade war.  Another kick-himself-in-the-nuts moment for Trump.  Can he do anything right?   He can't even pay hush money for sex - without it blowing up in his face.

[mrwebb8825]

On 3/10/2018 at 2:20 PM, Srikcir said:

Same time it took Trump to reverse his planned meeting with Kim Jong-Un.

Link please or stop posting lies. 

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, mrwebb8825 said:

Link please or stop posting lies. 

About the same amount of time it took him to renege on his support for more restrictive gun controls.  How's that?

[Srikcir]

2 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

Link please or stop posting lies. 

"We’re not going to have this meeting take place until we see concrete actions that match the words and the rhetoric of North Korea,"

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said earlier on Friday that the regime must first undertake unspecified “concrete and verifiable actions.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-09/u-s-must-see-concrete-and-verified-steps-before-kim-meeting

It's a TBD.

[mrwebb8825]

1 hour ago, ilostmypassword said:

About the same amount of time it took him to renege on his support for more restrictive gun controls.  How's that?

He hasn't changed his mind on that either.

1 hour ago, Srikcir said:

"We’re not going to have this meeting take place until we see concrete actions that match the words and the rhetoric of North Korea,"

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said earlier on Friday that the regime must first undertake unspecified “concrete and verifiable actions.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-09/u-s-must-see-concrete-and-verified-steps-before-kim-meeting

It's a TBD.

Maybe you can cut and paste the part in your link that says he changed his mind and canceled the meeting. 

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, ilostmypassword said:

About the same amount of time it took him to renege on his support for more restrictive gun controls.  How's that?

15 minutes ago, mrwebb8825 said:

He hasn't changed his mind on that either.

 

Well, here's what the lying liberals at fox say:

 

"The White House announced a series of recommendations Sunday night meant to stop school shootings, including a full audit and review of the FBI tip line after warnings about a student who killed 17 people at a Florida high school last month were not acted upon.

The administration did not call for immediately increasing the minimum age for buying long guns to 21, as President Trump had previously advocated."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/03/11/trump-wh-expected-to-support-raising-minimum-age-to-buy-long-guns.html

 

You mean to say you couldn't do a simple search to find this out for yourself?

 

Edited March 13, 2018 by ilostmypassword

[mrwebb8825]

1 hour ago, ilostmypassword said:

Well, here's what the lying liberals at fox say:

 

"The White House announced a series of recommendations Sunday night meant to stop school shootings, including a full audit and review of the FBI tip line after warnings about a student who killed 17 people at a Florida high school last month were not acted upon.

The administration did not call for immediately increasing the minimum age for buying long guns to 21, as President Trump had previously advocated."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/03/11/trump-wh-expected-to-support-raising-minimum-age-to-buy-long-guns.html

 

You mean to say you couldn't do a simple search to find this out for yourself?

 

I could have but prefer the truth.

“The president, as you know, doesn't have the ability to just create federal law, and he would need a number of other individuals to come together to help make that happen,” Sanders said. “So what he is pushing forward are things that can immediately be accomplished.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-retreating-gun-control-white-house/story?id=53692776