The president signed a proclamation authorizing the tariffs at a meeting Thursday afternoon with workers from the steel and aluminum industries. The U.S. will levy a 25 percent duty on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, the same level Trump promised when he revealed the plan March 1. The tariffs will take effect in 15 days. 

Trump agreed to exclude Canada and Mexico from the duties because of their status as key regional allies and partners with the U.S. in renegotiating a new North American Free Trade Agreement, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Any U.S. trade partner has the option of asking to be excluded from the tariffs, the official said, and allies could be excluded if they can demonstrate how the tariffs would damage their national security.

“Today I’m defending America’s national security by placing tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum,” Trump said, flanked by workers from the industries and economic advisers who had backed the plan. The president said U.S. political leaders preceding him had allowed the decline of manufacturing in the nation, and cited a protectionist predecessor, Republican President William McKinley, in defense of the tariffs. “Our factories were left to rot and to rust all over the place,” Trump said.

On Thursday, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, vowed a “justified and necessary response” to any efforts to incite a trade war. It was the Chinese government’s most forceful response yet to the new tariffs. Wang, who spoke on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, urged the U.S. to work with China on a mutually beneficial solution. “A trade war has never been the right way to solve the problem, especially under globalization,” Wang said. Such a conflict “will only harm everyone and China will surely make a justified and necessary response.”

Trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies have risen since Trump took office in 2017, and although China only accounts for a small fraction of U.S. steel imports, its industrial expansion has helped produce a global glut of steel that has driven down prices.

Source: BloombergTV.mn