Free Republic

China offered to purchase nearly $70 billion of U.S. farm, manufacturing and energy products if the Trump administration abandons threatened tariffs, according to people briefed on the latest negotiations with American trade officials. In weekend talks in Beijing, Chinese negotiators led by Liu He, President Xi Jinping’s economic envoy, presented a U.S. team headed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross a package that includes Chinese companies buying more U.S. soybeans, corn, natural gas, crude oil, coal and manufactured goods. Chinese and U.S. officials estimated the value of the package at nearly $70 billion in the first year. President Donald Trump has...

The good news for home builders and house hunters is that lumber prices have sold off since hitting an all-time high in mid May. The bad news: wood prices are still up 66% over the past year, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of each new house. The historic run-up in lumber prices–attributable to a trade dispute with Canada, wildfires and limited rail capacity–comes as U.S. home builders are already struggling to meet demand amid shortages in buildable lots and labor. Lumber futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange closed at $586.80 per 1,000 board feet on Monday, down 8.2%...

Donald Trump is following through on his threat—or promise, as his voters see it—to impose steep tariffs on foreign goods in the name of supporting American industry, starting with levies of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium imports. Allies and neighbors that had been granted temporary exemptions are now set to feel the brunt of the tariffs: Canada is America’s leading source of foreign steel, and Mexico and the European Union will also feel the pain. They’re all threatening to retaliate, and the press is calling this a trade war. If this is a war,...

Are the U.S. and China “destined for war“? Harvard professor Graham Allison posed that question in a provocative book published last summer. I’ve written previously in this space about Allison’s thesis, but it seems newly relevant in light of developments over the last month, if not the last few days. The gist of Allison’s argument is that the modern world’s two most powerful nations are stumbling into a “Thucydides Trap.” That’s Allison’s shorthand for the theory of an ancient Greek general who identified sudden, significant shifts in the relative strength of major powers as a primary cause (if not the...

New tariffs intended to bolster the American steel and aluminum industries are starting to have the opposite effect in a key part of the U.S. supply chain. U.S. steel producers are benefiting from tariffs that make it more expensive for companies to buy the metals overseas. But some U.S. firms that use the metals to make everything from refrigeration parts to wheels say the tariffs have led to higher materials prices that are forcing them to charge more for their products. These firms say that in some cases, customers are turning to foreign suppliers that use cheaper, tariff-free metals to...

Europe hit back at the US after President Donald Trump slapped tough tariffs on European steel and aluminium earlier this week. The united front was delivered from European Union's trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom who warned President Trump of retaliation. However, the unity shown in response to the tariffs could quickly change, according to a leading currency strategist. Jane Foley, a senior currency strategist at Rabobank, predicted that over time the tariffs will start to hurt and the rest of Europe will blame Germany. "This could become Germany versus the rest of the EU. "If you look at the US Treasury...

Andy Marsh’s New York factory is trapped in the Trump trade wars. As Mr. Trump threatens tariffs on America’s economic allies and its adversaries, many of the domestic businesses that the president says his policies are meant to protect are finding themselves victims of his aggressive approach. Prices are rising for imported goods, other nations are erecting retaliatory trade barriers, and companies like Plug Power, the manufacturing business that Mr. Marsh runs outside Albany, are facing crippling uncertainty from Mr. Trump’s fickle approach. It is not the first time Mr. Marsh has felt firsthand the impact of decisions made hundreds...

Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich is pushing Republican leadership to stand up to President Donald Trump on tariffs and immigration. […] Kasich urged Republicans in Congress “to do whatever they can do legislatively” to push back against Trump’s decisions to impose tariffs on several ally nations and end an Obama-era program to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. …

Originally President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum exempted imports from Canada, Mexico, and Europe. No longer. The administration has broadened the application of its tariffs even as their strategic and economic costs are becoming more apparent. The law gives Trump the authority to impose tariffs to protect national security. These tariffs are, however, an abuse of that law. The Department of Defense has explained that the military needs only 3 percent of our domestic steel and aluminum production, and our largest supplier, Canada, is an ally — albeit one that now has reason to be miffed with us....

Canada filed a challenge to the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum with the World Trade Organization on Friday and said it will request a Chapter 20 panel under the North American Free Trade Agreement on Friday in response to the U.S. move. "These unilateral tariffs, imposed under a false pretext of safeguarding U.S. national security, are inconsistent with the United States international trade obligations and WTO rules," Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement. "Canada will closely collaborate with the European Union, which also filed a WTO challenge today, as well as with other like-minded countries, on opposing...

The chairman of Molson Coors, which owns MillerCoors, is warning the cost of beer may be going up under President Donald Trump's new tariffs on aluminum.

Chancellor Angela Merkel blasted US import duties on steel and aluminum imports Thursday as “illegal” and said they risked sparking a disastrous “spiral” of retaliatory measures. “The German government rejects the tariffs imposed by the US on steel and aluminum. We consider this unilateral measure to be illegal; the cited grounds of national security do not stand up,” Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement. “The measure risks touching off spirals of escalation that in the end hurt everyone.” Merkel said the European Union had made the “necessary preparations for appropriate countermeasures” to the tariffs, after EU chief Jean-Claude...

So much for Donald Trump as genius deal-maker. We are supposed to believe his tariff threats are a clever negotiation strategy, but on Thursday he revealed he’s merely an old-fashioned protectionist. His decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Europe, Canada and Mexico will hurt the U.S. economy, his own foreign policy and perhaps Republicans in November. In March Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross dangled temporary exemptions to 25% steel and 10% aluminum tariffs to extort trade concessions from U.S. allies. Mr. Ross withdrew the exemptions on Thursday, saying the U.S. “was unable to reach satisfactory arrangements” with...

Canada will retaliate against new U.S. tariffs by imposing its own trade barriers on U.S. steel, aluminum and other products, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday. This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

In a move that sharply escalates trade tensions with America’s closest allies, the Trump administration said Thursday it would allow steep tariffs to take effect on imported steel from the European Union, Canada and Mexico. Despite European officials’ last-ditch pleas as well as repeated vows of retaliation, the administration said it would not extend for a third time temporary tariff exemptions on steel and aluminum, which expire at midnight Friday. If the duties are imposed — 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum — EU leaders said they would have no choice but to respond with counter-tariffs on as much...

The Trump administration will put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, the latest action in a string of protectionist policies to crack down on alleged trade abuses. The tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports will take effect at midnight Thursday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters. The U.S. gave those allies a reprieve from those duties, but the exemptions were set to expire Friday. The Trump administration will place quotas or volume limits on other countries such as South Korea, Argentina, Australia and Brazil instead of...

The Trump administration announced Thursday it will impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Europe, Mexico and Canada after failing to win concessions from the American allies. Europe and Mexico pledged to retaliate quickly, exacerbating trans-Atlantic and North American trade tensions. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the tariffs would be 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, and go into effect on Friday, as the administration followed through on the penalties after earlier granting exemptions to buy time for negotiations. President Donald Trump had announced the tariffs in March, citing national security concerns. The European Commission’s president,...

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday that its exports to the U.S. rose 22% in April, highlighting the problem it faces if the Trump administration makes good on threats to impose higher tariffs on imports. The problem is crystallized in one model: the RAV4 sport-utility vehicle. It is the most popular Toyota among American consumers—and none are made in the U.S. More than half are imported from Japan, while the rest are made in Canada and imported tariff-free under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

White House to impose 25% tariff on $50bn worth of Chinese goods Aggressive step in an effort to reduce $337bn US trade deficit Move comes at a sensitive time in US-China relations The White House has taken aggressive new steps in its effort to reduce a $337bn trade deficit with China, announcing that it will impose a 25% tariff on $50bn of Chinese goods containing “industrially significant technology”. “From now on, we expect trading relationships to be fair and to be reciprocal,” Donald Trump said in statement. The threat of new tariffs comes despite an apparent US decision, enunciated by...

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is considering a plan that would impose new tariffs on imported vehicles on national-security grounds, according to industry officials briefed on broad outlines of the plan. President Donald Trump has already used a legal provision known as Section 232 to impose global tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, and now the administration is considering starting a probe of imported cars under the same law, possibly applying tariffs at the end, the people said. Mr. Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of tariffs on auto imports in meetings. The plan remains in its early stages, and is likely...