“When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win,” Trump said in an early morning tweet on Friday.
“Steel and aluminum imports from Japan, which is an ally, do not affect U.S. national security at all,” Japan’s Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko told reporters in Tokyo Friday. “I would like to convey that to the U.S. when I have an opportunity.”
Canada -- the biggest foreign supplier of steel to the U.S. -- said the measures were unacceptable while the European Union vowed to “react firmly” with World Trade Organization-compliant countermeasures in the next few days. Australian Trade Minister Steve Ciobo called the move “disappointing” and said his country is seeking an exemption.
U.S. companies from beer brewer MillerCoors to candymaker Hershey Co., which use aluminum for manufacturing and packaging, said operations would be hurt by the tariffs.
“We buy as much domestic can sheet aluminum as is available, however, there simply isn’t enough supply to satisfy the demands of American beverage makers like us,” MillerCoors said in a tweet. “American workers and American consumers will suffer as a result of this misguided tariff.”
From what I'm understanding, the White House administration is willing to have swing states targeted by EU/Canada/Australia/Japan/China's trade retaliations (e.g. soybean import restrictions), or is completely unaware of what happened in 2002. I wouldn't be surprised if the EU pulls up their old 2002 tariff retaliation playbook and goes after the swing states again. The question is how the White House will respond?
EDIT: I also find it interesting that the White House does not trust steel imports from the EU/Canada/Australia/Japan. If they all turned against the US during a war (including NATO ignoring the US or disbanding), the US is screwed anyways.
(I was strongly considering posting this in the earlier thread, but I had the impression that the White House was not planning on backing down after the tweet today. If the mods want this update in the other thread, I understand.)
Submitted March 02, 2018 at 09:05AM by COMPUTER1313 http://ift.tt/2F5FV8L
