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Washington (AFP) – President Donald Trump was criticizing again in three of the largest irritants: foreign steel, foreign aluminum and Canada.
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On Wednesday, Trump will effectively taxes by 25 % _ definitions – all steel and aluminum imports. On Tuesday, the President said that the United States will double the next mineral tax to 50 % if they come from Canada – only to suggest only hours to reconsider the additional increase in North America's neighbor.
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Pain will not be felt by foreign steel and aluminum factories. The definitions are likely to increase the costs of American companies that use minerals, such as car manufacturers, construction companies and beverage makers who use cans. The threats of the economy shook stock markets.
“The definitions will raise prices, cost American jobs, and stress alliances,” wrote Philip Lak and Ivan Brown of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the report last month.
Trump presses the customs duties from his first term
The latest definitions are a re -display from Trump's first term.
In 2018, in an attempt to protect US steel makers from foreign competition, a 25 % tariff for foreign steel and 10 % on aluminum, using the 1962 trade law for declaring a threat to American national security.
The definitions fell significantly on American allies: Canada is the number 1 supplier of foreign steel and represents more than half of aluminum exports to the United States. Mexico, Japan and South Korea are also two main sources in the United States
The president insists that steel imports pose a threat to the presence of the United States. “If we do not have, for example, steel, and a lot of other things, we do not have an army and frankly we will not have – we will not have a very long country,” Trump said last week in his common speech to Congress.
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Its penalties for 2018 were gradually reduced.
Trump spared Canada and Mexico after they agreed to request a commercial deal in North North America in 2020. The Trump administration also allowed American companies to request exemptions from definitions if they could not, for example, to find the steel they need from local American producers.
This time, Trump closes these gaps and raises aluminum tax to 25 %.
It has been shown in preparation for the height-where the definitions it reached appears to be 50 % on Canadian steel and aluminum.
Trump was originally punctured in the Ontario government to impose additional 25 % fees on the electricity sold to the United States, a step in itself in response to Trump's identification threats. After Trump said that the Canadians would strike the metal tax by 50 %, Ontario suspended its planned additional electrical fees. In response, White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro said that the United States will return to double the definitions of Canadian and aluminum steel.
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Expect more of the same thing
Trump's steel and aluminum tariff benefited from American mineral producers, encouraging them to increase production. But the beneficiaries were relatively few: for example, the American steel industry employs less than 150,000 people. Walmart alone has 1.6 million employees in the United States.
Moreover, economists found that the gains for the steel and aluminum industry were more than the cost they imposed on the “estuary” manufacturers that use steel and aluminum. In 2021, production in such companies decreased by about $ 3.5 billion due to the customs tariff, which resulted in the cancellation of a height of $ 2.3 billion in production that year by aluminum producers and steel makers.
This time, “there is no specific reason for the belief that the economy will not be more than the same: small gains for American and aluminum producers and employees, but the largest comprehensive losses for the rest of U..S manufacturing,” said Christine McDanel, a research colleague at the Morsi Mason Center in George Mason.
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It is unlikely that the metal tariff themselves will cause many damages to the US economy of $ 30 trillion. “Steel and aluminum – they are just a decrease in the ocean,” said Satyam Bandai, the chief American economist and Canada at the S & P Global Ratings.
But Trump is not only hitting steel and aluminum. 20 % of the customs tariffs have slapped all Chinese imports. All Canadian and Mexican products are to be offered by 25 % of taxes next month, while a tariff on Canadian energy limits to 10 %-movements of their postponement twice with 30 days redrared. He has an ambitious and complex plan to impose a “mutual tariff”, which raises American import taxes to suit those that impose higher fees on American products.
It threatens the inability to predict the Trump tariff schedule to revive inflation and slow down growth by inhibiting companies from investments in order to reduce trade tensions. “If you are an executive official in the Board of Directors, will you really tell your painting, it's time to expand this assembly line?” John Murphy, Senior Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce, said.
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American steel makers raise prices
American steel makers can increase production to compensate for lost imports. They can also raise prices – and they have already begun, putting American companies that use American steel in a non -favorable position for competitors who get their other places.
The US steel price was $ 854 per metric ton from February 24, which is much higher than the average global export price of $ 488, according to steel.
Aluminum is a different story. In the United States there are four aluminum fans, and two of them only work completely last year. S& P Global said in a report last week that increasing the production of son -in -law in the United States requires “sufficient force for a small city.”
Trump's tariff of steel and aluminum will be attracted by retaliatory taxes. Canada is expected to be announced on Wednesday.
He competes with angry Canadians
Critics say that the Trump metal tariff reaches the wrong goal.
China is widely seen as a source of global steel industry problems. Excessive Chinese production, strongly supported by Beijing, has been overwhelmed with steel and kept low prices, hurting steel makers in the United States and other places.
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But the United States already uses commercial barriers to maintain most Chinese steel. China formed less than 2 % of US steel imports last year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. “Instead of focusing on the real issue-China policies in the market-the United States risks to involvement in tariffs with its closest allies,” Lak and Berron wrote at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Meanwhile, companies that use steel already feel pain.
Steelport Knife Co. Last month, the US steel supplier, which expected the Trump tariff, increased its price by 10 %.
CEO Ron Khormie says that Japanese and German competitors in Stellport benefit. He said, “It is cheaper for them.” KHORMAEI says his small company – has 12 employees – will lose her business if she raises prices. So he does everything in his power to reduce costs – maintaining the inventory tight, for example, and travels to commercial exhibitions.
Another problem faces. He said: “Canadians are angry with us.”
KHORMAEI said that one of his Canadian customers has just canceled an email request: “Thank you. We love your product. We do not buy.”
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