White House planning major trade announcement Thursday on steel aluminum imports
The White House is planning to make a major announcement Thursday about whether it will impose new limits on steel and aluminum imports  three people familiar with the event said  following months of speculation about whether  President Donald Trump  would follow through on trade threats and impose tariffs that could roil global markets.
The announcement is connected to a review of steel and aluminum imports that the Commerce Department conducted at  Trump 's behest. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has found that large amounts of steel and aluminum imports pose a threat to U.S. national security  a declaration that gives the White House powers to limit imports through tariffs or other means.
Philip Levy  senior White House trade economist for President George W. Bush  said  the Trump administration  "comes off as belligerent" in the document.
The 359-page report was made public as U.S. officials were in Mexico City for the latest round of talks aimed at renegotiating the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.  Trump  has repeatedly threatened to quit NAFTA unless Mexico and Canada agree to concessions that return lost manufacturing jobs to the United States.
 The administration  took credit for launching "a new era in American trade policy" by reversing decades of multilateral trade policies that  it  said had damaged U.S. workers and intensifying enforcement efforts. Over the past 13 months  the Commerce Department has initiated 102 anti-dumping and countervailing-duty investigations  nearly double the prior-year figure.
The report also underscored the mixed messages emanating from the administration on trade  particularly on a Pacific trade deal that  Trump  withdrew the United States from on  his  first working day in the White House.
On Tuesday  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he had engaged in "high-level" discussions with foreign counterparts aimed at enabling the United State to rejoin the treaty with Japan and 10 other nations.  Trump  in January said for the first time that  he  might seek to reenter the trade pact that  he  earlier had disparaged.
The White House is planning to make a major announcement Thursday about whether it will impose new limits on steel and aluminum imports  three people familiar with the event said  following months of speculation about whether  President [TGT]  would follow through on trade threats and impose tariffs that could roil global markets.
The announcement is connected to a review of steel and aluminum imports that the Commerce Department conducted at  Trump 's behest. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has found that large amounts of steel and aluminum imports pose a threat to U.S. national security  a declaration that gives the White House powers to limit imports through tariffs or other means.
Philip Levy  senior White House trade economist for President George W. Bush  said  the Trump administration  "comes off as belligerent" in the document.
The 359-page report was made public as U.S. officials were in Mexico City for the latest round of talks aimed at renegotiating the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.  Trump  has repeatedly threatened to quit NAFTA unless Mexico and Canada agree to concessions that return lost manufacturing jobs to the United States.
 The administration  took credit for launching "a new era in American trade policy" by reversing decades of multilateral trade policies that  it  said had damaged U.S. workers and intensifying enforcement efforts. Over the past 13 months  the Commerce Department has initiated 102 anti-dumping and countervailing-duty investigations  nearly double the prior-year figure.
The report also underscored the mixed messages emanating from the administration on trade  particularly on a Pacific trade deal that  Trump  withdrew the United States from on  his  first working day in the White House.
On Tuesday  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he had engaged in "high-level" discussions with foreign counterparts aimed at enabling the United State to rejoin the treaty with Japan and 10 other nations.  Trump  in January said for the first time that  he  might seek to reenter the trade pact that  he  earlier had disparaged.