Trade Cases
March 25, 2018
Trump Gives Ally Nations a Temporary Reprieve from Tariffs
Written by Tim Triplett
President Trump’s Section 232 steel tariffs went into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Friday—but hardly as expected. At the last minute, the president suspended the tariffs for a large group of ally nations until May 1 while negotiations continue. The suspension could head off retaliatory trade measures threatened by various foreign countries, at least temporarily, but it leaves the market wondering what to expect next.
In addition to Mexico and Canada, the president exempted the EU (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), Argentina, Australia, Brazil and South Korea. The exempted countries account for well over half of the imported steel sold into the United States in 2017. Effectively, the tariffs as they now stand apply to just four major exporters: China, Russia, Japan and Turkey.
