It has only been a couple of days removed from the U.S. government announcing a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese tech imports, but Washington is continuing the 18th century protectionist pursuits.
On Thursday, the President Donald Trump administration confirmed a 25 percent tariff on steel imports from the European Union, Canada, and Mexico and a 10 percent tariff on aluminium imports.
This was part of an announcement in March, but there were several exemptions amid trade negotiations.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that talks with Canada and Mexico over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are “taking longer than we had hoped,” while talks with Europe have “made some progress.”
The European Union (EU) already warned that it would impose its own series of tariffs on U.S. goods, including oranges – an industry that has crumbled in recent years from declining sales, citrus greening, and weather events.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire issued a statement, calling the move “unjustified, unjustifiable, and dangerous”:
“This will only lead to the victory of those who want less growth, those who don’t think we can develop our economies across the world. We think on the contrary that global trade must have rules in a context of multilateralism. We are ready to rebuild this multilateralism with our American friends.”
Let the retaliation begin.
Sad!
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