Trump Tariffs On Steel And Aluminum Not To Be Initially Imposed On Mexico And Canada


03/08/2018



While giving some interim relief to Mexico and Canada with respect to the proposed trade tariffs by the Trump administration, the U.S. has reiterated that those concessions would eventually depend on the favorable outcome of the Nafta negotiations. This was announced by the White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.
 
The tariff would be relaxed for the proposed steel and aluminum industry that the Trump administration proposes to impose on import for the metals into the U.S. Navarro said that the concessions would remain valid if the two countries agree to the U.S. demands from the Nafta agreement. Similar systems could be used to ask for a relaxation by other American allies.
 
The Trump administration has proposed import tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum which would also be imposed on Mexico and Canada is there is no favorable agreement after the Nafta negotiations.
 
“Here’s the situation, and the president has made this public," Navarro said. "There’s going to be a provision which will exclude Canada and Mexico until the Nafta thing is concluded one way or another."
 
There could be more alterations to the tariffs till a final draft is agreed to by the U.S. President Donald Trump because the decision system for the tariffs is an evolving one.
 
China has been strictly opposed to the tariffs and threatened retaliatory measures on Thursday of the Trump administration continued with the tariff imposition decision.
 
“A trade war is never the right solution,” China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing. “In a globalized world, it is particularly unhelpful, as it will harm both the initiator and the target countries. In the event of a trade war, China will make a justified and necessary response.”
 
The tariff structure would contain “potential carve outs for Canada and Mexico based on national security” considerations as well as potential relaxations for some other countries, said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday.
 
One of the countries that is already making a petition with the U.S. to get itself exempted from the proposed tariffs is Australia. In a television interview on Thursday, Australis’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop pitted her country as a "close ally and partner" of the U.S.
 
“While the news is encouraging, our efforts are ongoing,” Trade Minister Steven Ciobo told the media in relation to Huckabee Sanders’ comments. “We are leaving no stone unturned to secure Australian exports and the jobs they support.”
 
Meanwhile, representatives from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. ended the seventh round of Nafta negotiations without resolving the most significant of the sticking points. While not detailing the exact mechanism of a trade-off, U.S. president earlier this week had tweeted about the possible tariff incentive.
 
Important trade partners of the U.S. including Mexico, Canada and the European Union have issued warnings to the proposal of Trump administration of the tariffs. Trump is also facing pressure about the tariffs from within the Republican Party Republican Party who have warned of the U.S. getting into a possible trade war because of such large measures and remined the President of the potentially significant political and economic fallouts.
 
(Source:www.bloomberg.com)