Trump indicates harshest of tariffs on steel and aluminium import

Responding to the U.S. Commerce Department’s tariff recommendations on steel and aluminium imports, President Donald Trump has expressed his willingness to impose the hardest of tariffs on steel and aluminium.

As told to his confidants Trump is looking a global tariff of 24 per cent on steel imports, the hardest of the three options presented to him by the Commerce Department in January. As for aluminium is concerned,  he is said to be considering as much as a 10 per cent duty on all imported aluminium, which would be about 2.5 per cent higher than the Commerce’s highest recommendations.

Political and economic analysts are of the view that such huge tariffs on widely used commodities could spark retaliation from exporting countries like China and Canada and rise prices of end-use products like vehicles to beer cans. The president might take a targeted or “surgical” approach to the tariffs, and he’s said to be under pressure from members of his own Republican party to refrain from measures that may ham the supply chain. The Commerce Department itself released a memo from the Defence Department warning about making rash trade decisions. To say for example, Trump could impose a global tariff on all steel and aluminium imports, but slap huge tariffs on such imports from a select number of countries.

The President, according to a source may announce the tariffs at an event in Pennsylvania days before the special election. According to White House officials the levying of tariffs would be an ongoing process. While China accounts for just a small fraction of U.S. metal imports, it’s accused of flooding the global market and putting pressure on prices.