On May 31, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that Washington would impose steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the EU on June 1.
Commerce Secretary Ross: NAFTA talks 'didn't get far enough' for Mexico and Canada to avoid tariffs https://t.co/G1Ax4fmai4
— CNBC (@CNBC) May 31, 2018
In an interview to CNBC, Ross recalled that imposed in March tariffs of 25 % on steel and 10 % on aluminum will expire as scheduled on June 1. He stressed that “he is still looking forward to continuing negotiations” on the issue with his EU colleagues.
However, in the case of Canada and Mexico the decision was based on making progress in the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks. Ross said that “those talks had been taking longer than we had hoped” and there is not any precise date of when a deal may be agreed. Ross pointed out that any other measures from Canada or Mexico would renew talks with the NAFTA.
He justified the US move as an intension to “protect U.S. national security”.
“The Trump Administration’s actions underscore its commitment to good-faith negotiations with our allies to enhance our national security while supporting American workers,” the US President Donald Trump statement reads.
“The Administration will continue to monitor steel and aluminum imports and adjust the measures in effect as necessary to protect the national security of the United States.”
Ross said that Argentina, Australia and Brazil receive further exemption from the tariffs though there have been “limitations” made “on the volume [of steel and aluminum] they can ship to the U.S.”
On May 30, top trade officials from the US came to Paris to meet their EU counterparts and discuss exemptions on tariffs. European representatives stressed that they would impose tariffs on as much as $3.3 billion in US exports, if Washington slaps other countries with new restrictions. French President Emmanuel Macron stressed that Europe should not show weakness in the face of unilateral action.
Maybe this tariff was with EU is intended do drive some wedge between US And EU, inadvertently giving EU more latitude to exercise their options in regards to the Russian sanctions. It might be a calculated risk by Trump, since the neocons have him completely tied up in the Congress regarding Russian sanctions, it might be Trump’s way at getting to the US neocons by damaging US – EU relations, and allowing EU to pursue a more independent approach in dealing with Russian sanctions.
This is fine. But I would never wish to characterize even an independent EU as anything other than malign . I just can not accept that if it was not for the USA then the EU would be somehow better. The EU is shit in its own right.
The point I was making involved Trump sticking it to the neocons and Wall Street. It is his way of bringing US into some form of isolationism, and counteracting neocon and Jewish interests indirectly.
I appreciate that this was your point. I was not trying to contradict you. I was just making a may be obliquely related point. Things written on the Internet can get a bit disjointed. I can be guilty of this at times.
The EU was created to try and stop the USA from targeting individual countries in Europe, and bending them to Americas will. However the US has infiltrated the EU, and now many members work for the USA and against Europe. The idea has failed, now it’s up to China and Russia to stand against American tyranny.
Wasn’t the EU an invention of the CIA?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/04/27/the-european-union-always-was-a-cia-project-as-brexiteers-discov/
watch Ron Paul’s response to it, he’s spot on
US is using economics / trade to push it’s foreign policy into it’s allies ,
– witness how US threaten trade tariff with south korea and japan because both govt trying to make peace with North Korea. – withness US playing dangerous game of tariff with china over north korea (dangerous because CHINA WILL WIN IN A REAL TRADE WAR). – witness how US trying to force EU to abandon iran by this trade tariff scheme
in short , US is using it’s last card on the table and think it is winning .. on the contrary this will erode US influence on it’s own allies and more more nations will join Eurasia economic block using Euro as currency exchange and possibly gold/silver..
US is using the basis of the petrodollar to push its tariff agenda, actually this is Trump’s idea who was at odds with Wall Street economic adviser Gary Cohn, who left the administration. Wall Street does not want trade wars and higher interest rates, something Trump and his advisers are pushing aggressively. Trump is out of sync with Wall Street and the financial industry, something I see as a power struggle between the neocons and Trump. Realistically US is in inferior position to flex economic muscles, since it runs hundreds of billions in yearly trade deficits, and a significant part of its manufacturing industries no longer exist in the US.
It was the Wall Street that outsource significant economic assets to Asia, making US vulnerable and less self sufficient, Trump’s defiance of Wall Street is a means to break down the Wall Street economic policies of the last 2-3 decades through trade wars, and bring friction to its allies.
thats the point , americans are too ignorant and paranoid , with such mighty armed force they still think the world out to get them… thus trump rise feed their irrational and uninformed paranoia , by thinking america got the short end of trade stick , never mind the much more unfair american use of their dollar as reserve currency ..
want a fair trade ? ditch dollar as reserve currency , ditch US economic hegemony , ditch petrodollar and let nations compete in trade fairly.. and watch US economy tank in just one day as dollar lost its value
How about working for real, and becoming rich based on efforts and output, instead of sitting on butt and manipulating finances created of thin air. The sense of entitlement is very strong in the American society and and government as well.
well it is putting itself on the pedestal of “exceptional nation”and most of US citizen too stupid to think about the foolishness of it and believe they are exceptional people..
such delusions led a nation to ruin.
All the proposed tariffs on metals, German cars etc is about forcing the EU buy American LNG, and protecting the US dollar. Only nations that are controlled by the USA, and only accept US dollars for payment will be tolerated.
Internal US political dynamics are a primary driver for the tariffs and their underlaying economic consequences.
Yes, they rely on US citizens and their uninformed, knee-jerk responses. They say this is to level the playing field. In reality, it is corporate warfare, taking what they can, while they can. The US government could not care less about the US economy or it’s people. This is all about plutocrat infighting. They use this ploy to assert that they are protecting US jobs, as they continue to turn the US into a uneducated, unskilled and corporate controlled economy where there are no careers, no decent wages and no future for the young people. The US has returned to the days of the Robber Barons.
I think that there is an element of wanting to give Goldman-Sachs a leg up on the aluminum business. Remember they have those warehouses in places like Detroit that stockpile recycled aluminum for the sole purpose of driving up the price. Who better to benefit from the sanctions. Cui bono?
I thought they divested them as they were caught manipulating the market (as they do).
The declining US influence and power led the current resident clown in white house to act rashly , acting like a roman emperor dictating his will to vassals all over the world , as if US still have influence to do that.. By tying trade and economics to blackmail US allies to conform to US foreign policy decisions ( read : To force them to conform to israeli needs that is abandoning iran) , US is being led by it’s foolish president into a precarious position that will see US being sidelined in the future by it’s own allies ..
in short , US is sanctioning itself from the rest of the world , for the sake of Israeli govt who managed to subdue US congress and whitehouse into acting like puppets. The blowback to US jewish people will be severe one american citizens wake up..
Blowback : unexpected negative reaction to one’s rash actions
” The blowback to US jewish people will be severe one american citizens wake up..”
I will certainly happen one day :)
The big news is the discovery of large amounts of natural gas(methane) on Pluto, and President Trump’s announcement that it is bad for Europe to buy Plutonian gas, and so he will sanction Pluto. Trump stated that the USA stood ready to meet all EU gas needs.
Trump certainly spews a lot of gas.
Prices in the US will go up, their exports on steel products will drop. No need whatsoever for the EU to tax the EU consumers with more taxes too. But bureaucrats being bureaucrats they will welcome any chance to raise more taxes.
Slowly but surely the US is nailing its own economic coffin shut. US industry is much weakened after years of neoliberal economic stupidity as it won’t be able to respond.
The question I ask is why exactly? If this is just to raise tax revenues why not put a tarrif on a country we don’t like? If this about that whole Russian natural gas thing, then this is a mistake.