>President Trump said on Thursday that he will impose stiff tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, thwarting some of his top pro-trade advisers and rattling stock markets as the prospect of a global trade fight loomed.
>The tariffs are expected to apply to all countries, according to an industry executive briefed on the president’s plans. At a White House meeting on Thursday, Mr. Trump told a group of executives that he did not want any nation to be exempted from the order, arguing that if one country was exempt, all other countries would be in line to ask for similar treatment, the executive who attended the meeting said. The president also argued that metals could end up being shipped to the United States through exempted countries.
>The trade action stems from a Commerce Department investigation that concluded imported metal threatens national security by degrading the American industrial base.
>“People have no idea how badly our country has been treated by other countries,” Mr. Trump said as he made the announcement. “They’ve destroyed the steel industry, they’ve destroyed the aluminum industry, and other industries, frankly.”
>Stocks fell as Mr. Trump made his comments about tariffs, with declines in the industrial sector outpacing the overall market. The Standard & Poor’s 500 industrial sector was down more than 2 percent, compared with the overall benchmark index, which was down a bit less than 1 percent as of around 1:30 p.m. Shares of Boeing and of American automakers, all large consumers of steel and aluminum, declined. Sales for Boeing, the country’s largest exporter, could be hurt as other nations retaliate against tariffs from the United States.
>However, the legal review of the trade measure was not yet complete and, as of Thursday morning, White House advisers were still discussing various scenarios for tariff levels and which countries could be included, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Just an hour before Mr. Trump made his remarks, a White House spokeswoman said that no announcement was expected that morning.
Source:
http://archive.is/kmzqH
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/business/trump-tariffs.html
Will this move spark a trade war?