Trump’s Tariffs Prompt Global Threats of Retaliation
By ANA SWANSONMARCH 2, 2018
WASHINGTON — A day after President Trump took a swing at United States trading partners by threatening stiff
and sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum, they hit back.
Yet the United States does not control the global economy,
and the tariffs, which Mr. Trump is expected to sign next week, could incite other countries to challenge it at the World Trade Organization.
Robert L. Shanks, Ford Motor’s chief financial officer, said commodities markets had already started to price in increases for steel
and aluminum on the expectation that Mr. Trump would impose the tariffs.
Those levies would harm the farmers and business interests
that the Trump administration has promised to protect and would fuel a trade fight that could undermine the president’s goal of strengthening American industry.
Li Xinchuang, the vice chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association, called the president’s move “stupid,”
saying, “Trump’s decision does no good to everyone except a few American steel enterprises.”
And John M. Weekes, Canada’s negotiator for the North American Free Trade Agreement in
the early 1990s, said the president’s “notion is going down very badly in Canada.”
“It certainly will have a negative effect on our bilateral relationship,” he said.
