WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on all US steel and aluminum imports took effect on Wednesday (Mar 12), stepping up a campaign to reorder global trade norms in favor of the US that drew swift retaliation from Europe.
Trump’s action to bulk up protections for American steel and aluminum producers restores effective global tariffs of 25 per cent on all imports of the metals and extends the duties to hundreds of downstream products made from the metals, from nuts and bolts to bulldozer blades and soda cans.
The European Commission responded almost immediately, saying it would impose counter tariffs on €26 billion (US$28 billion) worth of US goods from next month.
The commission said it will end the current suspension of tariffs on US products on Apr 1 and will also put forward a new package of countermeasures on US goods by mid-April.
“This matches the economic scope of the US tariffs. Our countermeasures will be introduced in two steps. Starting with Apr 1 and fully in place as of Apr 13,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement.
Close US allies Canada, Britain and Australia criticised the blanket tariffs, with Canada mulling reciprocal actions and British Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds saying “all options were on the table” to respond in the national interest.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the move was “entirely unjustified … and against the spirit of our two nations’ enduring friendship” but ruled out tit-for-tat duties.
“Tariffs and escalating trade tensions are a form of economic self-harm, and a recipe for slower growth and higher inflation. They are paid by the consumers,” Albanese told reporters.
The countries most affected by the tariffs are Canada, the biggest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the US, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea, which all have enjoyed some level of exemptions or quotas.
The runup to the tariff deadline came with some drama on Tuesday as Trump threatened Canada with doubling the duty to 50 per cent on its steel and aluminum exports to the US.
But Trump backed off those plans after Ontario Premier Doug Ford agreed to suspend his province’s decision to impose a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports to the states of Minnesota, Michigan and New York until earlier US tariffs were removed.
Ford said he would fly to Washington on Thursday with Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc for talks with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other Trump officials to discuss revising the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.
