Trump says US will impose steel and aluminum tariffs

CNN ^ | 3/1/18 | Jeremy Diamon

[ek_hornbeck]

President Donald Trump said Thursday his administration will impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports as early as next week, a highly controversial move that Trump framed along economic and national security lines.

Trump said the US will impose a 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% tariff on aluminum to shore up the struggling industries, capping a fierce, months-long internal debate that divided some of the President's top advisers. The move is likely to invite retaliatory measures from foreign countries, raising the specter of a trade war between the US and several other steel-producing countries.

[ek_hornbeck]

It's good to finally see a politician who tries to keep his promises. Trump ran on an economic nationalism platform where he promised to protect US industry and US workers from unfair practices among our trading partners, such as the dumping by foreign countries of their excess and often subsidized steel and other metals.

[SpaceBar]

CNN told us just now that it’s controversial. That’s how they control the conversation, by asserting the parameters.

[gr8eman]

I won’t click on CNN, but it would be refreshing to get some real analysis on exactly why Trump’s putting the tariffs on. I am pretty sure according to CNN it’s because he sucks!

[Poison Pill]

Unfortunate, but not unexpected.

[Mariner]

Bring it (trade war).

Only a stupid person would engage in a trade war with the largest market in the world, and one with which they have a substantial trade surplus.

The US hold all the cards here.

[rurgan]

I city in China makes 90% of the world's electronics.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/inside-shenzhen-china-s-gadget-capital/

china stole U.S. technology and now they dominate in electronics .China is now trying to destroy the U.S. steel and aluminum industries.

Go Trump!

[ek_hornbeck]

I won't click on CNN

You'd get exactly the same opinion condemning the tariffs from the free-trade obsessives at The Wall Street Journal or even National Review.

[Sidebar Moderator]

Trump just became a shoo-in in the industrial heartland for 2020.

[Sidebar Moderator]

No other president would have the brass pair it takes to do this.

[pburgh01]

Something sickeningly Keynesian about this. Propose a massive "Infrastructure" plan which will probably be filled with waste and graft and then need billions in steel to rebuilt roads, bridges, tunnels and airports. Just what we need, US steel manufacturers who have shown historically to be bloated and incompetent when it comes to running a tight ship and standing up to unions. Read the book "When the Wolf Finally Came". Chronicles the rise and fall of American steel.

Second move this week of reactionary polices by The President, first was his proclamation that he will basically be ok with no due process when it comes to mentally ill and guns.

[redgolum]

China HAS destroyed the steel industry. We are trying to rebuild it.

It is also why I am not very comfortable getting to close to train tracks now a days.

[ek_hornbeck]

What advocates of "free trade" don't or can't admit is that US companies incur an overhead that doesn't exist in other countries, and that the only reason foreign manufacturing has a competitive advantage is that they engage in practices that we would not tolerate.

For instance, Chinese companies and those elsewhere in the developing world have the "luxury" of dumping industrial waste raw into their rivers or into the ground, we do not. The Chinese government heavily subsidizes certain industries, including steel manufacturing - which allows them to produce at cost or at loss, which our firms don't do. Since we aren't going to go back to dumping untreated industrial waste or having government subsidies of overproduction (nor should we), imposing tariffs on foreign manufactured goods simply levels the playing field by recognizing these realities.

[1Old Pro]

US companies incur an overhead that doesn't exist in other countries

Like Union wages and excessive environmental hoops.

[1Old Pro]

CNN told us just now that it’s controversial

They don't like it because Trump just picked up thousands of Union Voters.

[Bratch]

President Trump Announces Likelihood for Steel and Aluminum Tariffs…

Posted on March 1, 2018 by sundance

President Trump announces he is like to impose global tariffs on imported steel and aluminum – in a broad effort to ensure U.S. national security and manufacturing capacity within a very important industrial sector.

Earlier today President Trump appeared to be accepting Commerce Secretary Ross proposals for 25 percent tariffs on imported steel and 10 percent for aluminum.  It is likely the tariffs will apply globally to all imports because targeted national tariffs have not worked.  China ships their manufactured steel to another nation first in order to avoid the tariff.  As Secretary Ross has previously stated we end up with a whack-a-mole policy.   So likely the tariff will apply globally regardless of the nation shipping the product.

Trump announces tariffs on aluminum and steel

The usual, the corporate GOPe and Chamber of Commerce politicians will go bananas.

Last year President Donald Trump requested a national security Section 232 trade-investigation, to conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce and Secretary Wilbur Ross, specifically focusing on U.S. steel and aluminum manufacturing.

The discussion continued last month as President Trump met with a group of republican and democrat members of congress to talk about trade policy and focus attention on the lack of American steel and aluminum production.   [The responses from the republican participants was very enlightening and disappointing.]

Commerce Department Recommendations HERE

[wardamneagle]

Could you’ve waited a few weeks to announce for the market to recover
fed chair rate hikes announced this week. Jeeeez.

[zeestephen]

Re: “Trump said the US will impose a 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% tariff on aluminum...”

Which means the price of steel and aluminum in America will go up 25% and 10% - correct?

Before agreeing to this, I think we need to see a comprehensive report on the level of technology being used in American mills compared to the technology in the mills of the exporting countries.

If American steel and aluminum manufacturers are holding back on technology investments, there is absolutely no way Americans should subsidize them with higher prices!

[rurgan]

It’s actually the Fed raising rates that is causing the Market to go down not anything else.

The Fed is against Trump. Inflation is 2% so there’s no reason to raise rates.

[zeestephen]

Re: “No other president would have the brass pair it takes to do this.”

Is that because we don’t have tariffs on brass?

[oincobx]

Well, I guess this will make those Korean washing machines we just put a tariff on a little more price cpmpetitive. Does Whirlpool support these tariffs too?