
According to a BBC update, the European Union (EU) and six other countries will be exempt from steel and aluminium tariffs announced by President Trump, for the time being.
Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced Mr Trump’s decision to "pause" the import duties temporarily for these countries to a Senate panel. The 25% and 10% tariffs on steel and aluminium are due to come into effect on Friday March 23.
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Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and South Korea are the other countries that are in the exemption list.
"There are countries with whom we're negotiating and the question becomes the obvious one that you think, as a matter of business, how does this work?” "So what he has decided to do is to pause the imposition of the tariffs with respect to those countries," he said.
In announcing exemptions for these countries, Trump administration has effectively narrowed the countries that it is targeting with its protectionist trade policies while effectively blocking the potential fallout to the US economy to be cause by these trade barriers.
After the exemption, less than a third of US steel imports would be subject to tariffs.
A UK government spokesperson applauded the US government’s gesture that indicated they were considering tariff exemptions for EU, even for a limited time period.
"The government will continue to work closely with the EU and the US Administration for a full exemption, and to ensure UK companies are not negatively impacted, either directly or indirectly.
He further added that UK government is concerned about the impact of these tariffs on global trade and so they will continue to work with the EU on a multilateral solution to the global steel and aluminium overcapacity issue and to manage the impact on domestic markets.
The European Commission had threatened to retaliate by imposing counter trade penalties on a long-list of American products, worth some $3.4 billion in annual trade if penalty tariffs were imposed on EU.
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