Trump’s announcement that he will impose stiff tariffs on imported steel and aluminum has upended political alliances on Capitol Hill.

President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with steel and aluminum executives in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Thursday, March 1, 2018, in Washington. Trump’s announcement that he will impose stiff tariffs on imported steel and aluminum has upended political alliances on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump issued a pair of early-morning tweets that say American tariffs on imported steel and aluminum will only come off if there’s a new NAFTA agreement that’s fair to the United States.

The president also wrote that Canada must treat U.S. farmers better and Mexico must do more to stop drugs from getting into the United States.

Related: Trump promises big tariffs on steel, aluminum; impact on Canada still unclear

The president has invoked national security as the reasons for imposing tariffs of 25 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, on all imported steel and aluminum.

But the Trump administration is coming under political pressure at home to exclude Canada, which is the largest source of imported steel and aluminum to the United States.

His administration is in the midst of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, which covers trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Related: Trudeau sounds alarm bell as U.S. inches toward tariff war

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. </s> The United States will announce plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium from the European Union as early as Thursday morning, two people briefed on the matter said, confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The decision would land ahead of a Friday expiration deadline for exemptions to the planned metals tariffs amid stalled trade talks with the EU and would likely prompt retaliation from the bloc.

The two sources said an announcement was planned for Thursday morning in Washington but that the timing could still change.

The US Commerce Department and US Trade Representative’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

President Donald Trump on March 23rd imposed a 25 per cent tariff on steel imports and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium, but granted temporary exemptions to the EU, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Argentina.

Trump invoked a 1962 trade law to erect protections for US steel and aluminium producers on national security grounds, amid a worldwide glut of both metals that is largely blamed on excess production in China.

The European Commission, which coordinates trade policy for the 28 EU members, has said the bloc should be permanently exempted from the tariffs since it was not the cause of overcapacity in steel and aluminium.

The Commission has said the EU will set duties on €2.8 billion of US exports, including peanut butter and denim jeans, if its metals exports to the United States worth €6.4 billion are subject to tariffs.

The tariffs, which have increased friction with US trading partners worldwide and prompted several challenges before the World Trade Organization, are aimed at allowing the US steel and aluminium industries to increase their capacity utilization rates above 80 per cent for the first time in years.

Economists say the standoff with the EU could tip toward a trade war, particularly after Trump last week launched another national security investigation into car and truck imports that could lead to new US tariffs.

The Trump administration has given permanent metals tariff exemptions to several countries including Australia, Argentina and South Korea, but in each case set import quotas.

Friday’s deadline for exemptions also affects Mexico and Canada, which are in contentious negotiations with the United States on the North American Free Trade Agreement that Trump has said he wants to revamp, or abandon if the talks fail. – Reuters </s> WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s vow Thursday to slap tariffs on imported steel and aluminum spooked investors, raised fears that other nations would punch back with their own sanctions and threatened to raise prices for U.S. consumers and companies that use steel and aluminum.

Here’s a close look at the tariffs and their potential to trigger a trade war and bruise the U.S. economy:

What exactly did Trump do?

The president said that sometime next week, he will formally announce tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum. It’s unclear whether any countries would be exempt from what would amount to a heavy new tax on imports. That tax would, in turn, make imported steel and aluminum more expensive for American companies and individuals who use goods containing those materials, ranging from cars to air conditioners to beer cans.

Trump had directed the Commerce Department nearly a year ago to investigate whether imported steel and aluminum posed a threat to national security. The premise is that a healthy industrial base is crucial to the nation’s military. The Trump administration has said, for example, that America now has only one smelter that provides the high-purity aluminum that military aircraft require.

Commerce last month issued its conclusion that national security concerns justified sanctions on steel and aluminum imports. Among its recommendations were across-the-board tariffs of 24 percent on steel and 7.7 percent on aluminum. Trump said Thursday that he wants even higher tariffs.

In his decision, Trump deployed a little-used weapon in U.S. trade law: Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which authorizes the president to restrict imports and impose unlimited tariffs on national security grounds. Since the United States joined the World Trade Organization in 1995, it has pursued only two such investigations. On both occasions — a 1999 case involving oil imports and a 2001 case concerning iron ore and steel imports — the Commerce Department declined to recommend sanctions.

What’s the likely impact on companies and the economy?

American steel and aluminum producers would benefit from a tax on imports and the higher prices that are likely to result.

“You will have protection for the first time in a long while, and you’re going to regrow your industries,” Trump told U.S. aluminum and steel company executives at the White House.

But there’s a flip-side to that calculation: Fewer choices and higher costs for companies that buy steel and aluminum and for their customers.

“Tariffs on steel and aluminum are a tax hike the American people don’t need and can’t afford,” said Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “I encourage the president to carefully consider all of the implications of raising the cost of steel and aluminum on American manufacturers and consumers.”

Freed of the need to compete with imports, U.S. steelmakers would likely raise their own prices. That, in turn, would force automakers to raise prices of new vehicles, although some might decide to absorb their higher costs.

“Simple supply and demand,” says Lee McMillan, a steel and aluminum analyst at Clarksons Platou Securities. “You eliminate or substantially tax a good portion of supply, and the overall price, the domestic price, rises.”

The American International Automobile Dealers Association said it fears that the tariffs would send car prices up “substantially.” U.S. auto sales plateaued in 2016 at 17.5 million vehicles a year. They fell slightly last year and are expected to dip again in 2018.

“You start throwing in higher prices from more expensive steel for automakers — that’s going to start to pile on multiple factors that could really slow down U.S. car sales,” says Karl Brauer, executive publisher for Kelley Blue Book.

Other industries are concerned as well.

“It’s going to be a big problem,” said James Kaufman, president of Indianapolis Metal Spinning Co., which makes metal components for hubcap and lighting manufacturers. Kaufman said most U.S. aluminum producers don’t make the alloys his company needs. So he has little choice but to import them.

“If the domestic mills are choosing not to make these alloys, I don’t think the users should be penalized for having to bring them in from overseas,” he said.

Kaufman said he also worries that the tariffs would raise the price of the steel that goes into his products, making his company less competitive with foreign rivals.

Do U.S. steel and aluminum producers need help?

Overproduction by China has flooded world markets with steel and aluminum, driving prices down and intensifying pressure on American producers. Nearly half the steel produced in December, for example, came from Chinese mills, according to the World Steel Association. China accounted for more steel production than the United States, Russia, Japan and 28 countries of the European Union combined.

But the U.S. has already thrown up barriers to Chinese imports. As a result, China ranks only 11th in steel and fourth in aluminum imports to the United States. Trump’s tariffs appear far more likely to hurt a staunch American ally, Canada, which is No. 1 in both areas: It supplies 16 percent of steel and 44 percent of aluminum imported to the U.S.

“Any suggestion that Ontario-made steel or aluminum constitutes a ‘national security threat’ to the U.S. is false,” said Kathleen Wynne, premier of Ontario. “Canada and the U.S. are key allies and partners and are integral to each other’s national security.”

How might the rest of the world respond?

Not well. Trade analysts predict that countries hit hard by the steel and aluminum tariffs could complain to the World Trade Organization.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, denounced the Trump tariffs as “a blatant intervention to protect U.S. domestic industry.”

Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, argues that U.S. has “an extraordinarily weak case” that imports jeopardize national defense. Indeed, the U.S. Defense Department says the military needs just 3 percent of domestic steel and aluminum production.

Still, the WTO is usually wary of making judgments about member countries’ security requirements. So it could balk at second-guessing the White House and could reject complaints against Trump’s tariffs.

Spurned by the WTO, other countries might then retaliate with sanctions, perhaps using national security as a pretext for imposing tariffs of their own. </s> President Donald Trump on Thursday formally ordered new tariffs on steel and aluminum imported into the United States.

In a ceremony at the White House, Trump signed separate proclamations imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports.

"It's really an assault on our country,” Trump said in remarks about the amount of steel and aluminum imported into the U.S. before he signed the orders.

The tariffs will take effect in 15 days. The proclamations exempt Canada and Mexico, although Trump said this could be rescinded if the White House does not like the outcome of ongoing renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Describing the new rules as “flexible”, Trump said other countries can apply for exemptions.

Currently, about 90 percent of aluminum used in American manufacturing is imported as well as one-third of steel. Industry groups believe consumers will face the brunt of the impact from the tariffs through increased prices for items ranging from beer to cars as well as thousands of other items built of the two metals or packaged inside them.

Trump announced last week that he would implement the tariffs, which led many other Republicans and elements of his own White House to widely criticize the suggestion. Many were concerned the new tariffs could stoke a global trade war.

Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic advisor, announced his resignation Monday, with White House sources telling media outlets that the decision was based on Trump’s tariff push. Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs, was Trump’s director of the National Economic Council and widely seen as a connection between Trump’s administration and Wall Street.

“These so-called ‘flexible tariffs’ are a marriage of two lethal poisons to economic growth – protectionism and uncertainty,” Republican Senator Jeff Flake, who has become known for his denunciation of Trump over the past year, said in a statement immediately after Trump ordered the tariffs.

“Trade wars are not won, they are only lost,” Flake continued. “Congress cannot be complicit as the administration courts economic disaster. I will immediately draft and introduce legislation to nullify these tariffs, and I urge my colleagues to pass it before this exercise in protectionism inflicts any more damage on the economy.” </s> Unswayed by Republican warnings of a trade war, President Donald Trump ordered steep new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. on Thursday, vowing to fight back against an "assault on our country" by foreign competitors. The president said he would exempt Canada and Mexico while negotiating for changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The new tariffs will take effect in 15 days, with Canada and Mexico indefinitely exempted "to see if we can make the deal," Trump said. NAFTA talks are expected to resume early next month.

"The American aluminum and steel industry has been ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices. It's really an assault on our country. It's been an assault," Trump said at the White House. He was joined by steel and aluminum workers holding white hard hats.

American steel and aluminum workers have long been betrayed, but "that betrayal is now over," Trump said. The former real estate developer said politicians had for years lamented the decline in the industries, but nobody was willing to take action.

As he has indicated previously, Trump said he would levy tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum. But he said during a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day that the penalties would "have a right to go up or down depending on the country and I'll have a right to drop out countries or add countries. I just want fairness."

Business leaders, meanwhile, have continued to sound the alarm about the potential economic fallout from tariffs, with the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce raising the specter of a global trade war. That scenario, Tom Donohue said, would endanger the economic momentum from the GOP tax cuts and Trump's rollback of regulations.

"We urge the administration to take this risk seriously," Donohue said.

The president suggested in the meeting with his Cabinet that Australia and "other countries" might also be spared, a shift that could soften the international blow amid threats of retaliation by trading partners.

"We're going to be very fair, we're going to be very flexible but we're going to protect the American worker as I said I would do in my campaign," Trump said.

People briefed on the plans ahead of the announcement said all countries affected by the tariffs would be invited to negotiate with the administration to be exempted from the tariffs if they can address the threat their exports pose to U.S. manufacturers. The exemptions for Canada and Mexico could be ended if talks to renegotiate NAFTA stall.

The process of announcing the penalties has been the subject of an intense debate and chaotic exchanges within the White House, pitting hard-liners against free trade advocates such as outgoing economic adviser Gary Cohn.

The fight over tariffs comes amid intense turmoil in the West Wing, which has seen waves of departures and negative news stories that have left Trump increasingly isolated in the Oval Office, according to two senior officials speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.

Congressional Republicans and business groups are bracing for the impact of the tariffs and the departure of Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive who has opposed them.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, appearing at a session with Home Depot employees in Atlanta, said ahead of Trump's announcement, "I'm just not a fan of broad-based, across-the-board tariffs." He pointed to the store's many products that rely on steel and aluminum.

More than 100 House Republicans wrote Trump on Wednesday, asking him to reconsider "the idea of broad tariffs to avoid unintended negative consequences" to the U.S. economy and workers.

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican, said he plans to introduce legislation next week to nullify the tariffs though he has acknowledged that finding the votes to stop the president's actions could be difficult.

The president has said the tariffs are needed to reinforce lagging American steel and aluminum industries and protect national security.

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Darlene Superville, Zeke Miller, Matthew Daly and Alan Fram in Washington and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report. </s> The US President Donald Trump on Thursday formally signed proclamations to impose steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminum amid mounting dissent from business groups and trading partners around the world. The US will impose a 25 per cent tariff on imported steel and 10 per cent on aluminum, Xinhua quoted Trump as saying. He said this at an event at the White House, noting a strong steel and aluminum industry is “vital to our national security.”

The tariffs will take effect in 15 days with initial exemptions for Canada and Mexico pending the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). “We’re going to hold off the tariff on those two countries, to see whether or not we’re able to make the deal on NAFTA,” Trump said.

Trump signaled that all other countries also have opportunities to be exempt from the tariffs by negotiations with the United States. “If the same goals can be accomplished by other means, America will remain open to modifying or removing the tariffs for individual nations, as long as we can agree on a way to ensure that their products no longer threaten our security,” he said. </s> WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump says he has authorized the doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Turkey as the diplomatic row over Ankara’s detention of a U.S. pastor intensified.

In a Twitter post on August 10, the U.S. president also referenced the Turkish lira's weakness against “our very strong dollar.”

"I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!" Trump wrote.

"Aluminum will now be 20 percent and Steel 50 percent. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!" he added.

In June, the United States imposed tariffs of 10 percent on aluminum imports and 25 percent on steel against many key global partners, complaining of unfair trade practices.

The new tariff threat targeting Ankara comes as bilateral tensions have risen over the detention and trial in Turkey of U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson, 50.

The pastor has been held since 2016, charged with "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member," a reference to Kurdish separatists and a group that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for a failed 2016 coup attempt against him.

Brunson, who faces up to 35 years in prison, was transferred to house arrest on July 25 as his trial continues.

Trump on July 26 threatened to impose "large sanctions" on Ankara if the government did not immediately let Brunson leave Turkey.

The sanction and tariff threats have led to a near-collapse of the Turkish lira -- which tumbled 19 percent on August 10 alone -- and forced Ankara into cost-cutting steps to stabilize the economy.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa </s> There has been swift reaction to Donald Trump's plan to impose steep new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the United States.

Dire warnings are being sounded of its potential effect on trade, and thousands of jobs worldwide, although the US president is standing by his plan.

Trump said on Thursday he would formally announce duties of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium next week, although White House officials later said some details still needed to be ironed out.

He said he believes the tariffs will safeguard American jobs, but many economists say the impact of price increases for users of steel and aluminium, such as the car and oil industries, will destroy more jobs than curbs on imports create.

The announcement sent Asian stocks into free fall, with investors - and members of Trump's Republican party - warning of a global trade war.

But Trump argues the moves will rebuild US industry, and that other countries had treated them unfairly for decades.

"He was making good on a campaign promise to revive US manufacturing and address a trade imbalance with China, which saw him win big in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania where he promised to bring back jobs," Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey, reporting from New York, said.

"But it's unclear whether the tariffs will apply to other trade partners like Canada from whom the US imports the most steel."

In fact, Canada has said it will retaliate against any restrictions on trade - and its views have been echoed by the European Union.

Germany has criticised strongly the US decision. Sigmar Gabriel, the foreign minister, said such punitive tariffs would mostly affect European industries, warning that it might also spark an international trade conflict.

"The EU has to respond in a determined manner to punitive tariffs by the US which would jeopardise thousands of jobs in Europe. There should be no doubt about that for those in Washington," Gabriel said in a written statement.

He said that a confrontation between the European Union and the US over trade affairs would be in the interests of neither the Europeans nor the Americans.

"When two people quarrel, a third rejoices. Therefore I hope that the president would reconsider his announced plans. We must do everything to prevent an international trade conflict," Gabriel said.

Separately, Bruno Le Maire, France's finance minister, said on Friday that Europe would retaliate with a firm joint response if the Trump administration goes ahead with "unacceptable" tariffs on imported steel and aluminium.

Le Maire said that "all options are on the table" including retaliation before the World Trade Organisation and countermeasures to limit European imports of US goods.

"The United States needs to know that if it goes ahead with these measures, they will meet with a strong, coordinated and united response from the European Union," Le Maire said at the ministry.

"These unilateral measures are not acceptable."

Referring to the Luxembourg-based European steel producer ArcelorMittal, he said they would have a major impact on the European economy and French companies like Vallourec and Arcelor.

Le Maire said Europe and the US needed to jointly tackle the problem of some countries heavily subsidising their producers, which makes it possible to dump their products abroad at prices below the cost of production.

"A trade war between Europe and the United States will only have losers," Le Maire said, adding that he would call his German and British counterparts on Friday to discuss the matter.

Alexander Winterstein, European Commission deputy chief spokesperson, said: "We strongly regret this step, which appears to represent a blatant intervention to protect US domestic industry and not to be based on any national security justification.

"Protectionism cannot be the answer to our common problem in the steel sector. Instead of providing the solution, this move can only aggravate matters. The EU has been a close security ally to the US for decades.

"We will not sit idly while our industry is hit with unfair measures that put thousands of European jobs at risk. The EU will react firmly and commensurately to defend our interests."

For his part, Hiroshige Seko, Japan's minister of economy, trade and industry, said: "We hope to find the opportunity to tell the United States that steel and aluminium imports from Japan, which is an allied nation, pose absolutely no threat to its national security."

Meanwhile, Hua Chunying, China's ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, said: "The US has already taken at least 100 countermeasures against imported steel and aluminium products, providing excessive protection for domestic markets.

"If all countries followed the US example, this would result in a serious impact on the international trade order." </s> President Donald Trump announced plans Friday to double tariffs on steel and aluminum in Turkey amidst a fight to get an American pastor released.

“Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump commented on the issue as the Turkish lira has fallen 36 percent in 2018, and the country faces increasing debt without foreign investment.

“I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!” Trump wrote. “Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%.”

Trump has tried to force Turkey to free American pastor Andrew Brunson, who was detained by authorities in the country as part of a crackdown in 2016:
U.S. President Donald Trump announces plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.