Duties, Trump’s moves to protect US businesses

It was a crucial week for the commercial policy of United States in which the customs rates wanted by the President Donald Trump they are the masters. Last Wednesday the duties of 25% entered into force on imports of steel and aluminum. The day before, the tenant of the White House had threatened to raise them to 50% towards Canada, then after a few hours he revealed.

As for metals, the goal is to protect the steel industry US, in decline, by growing competition, especially Asian.
The United States import about half of the steel and aluminum Used in the country to produce articles ranging from cars to planes to cans of drinks. Canada is the main steel supplier of the United States, followed by Brazil. For his part, Ottawa has announced additional duties out of 29.8 billion dollars (20.7 billion dollars) of imports from the United States, including steel and aluminum products, as well as different goods such as computer and sports equipment.

The European Union promptly presented a retaliation starting from April, targeting 28 billion dollars of US products, including boats, motorcycles and 50%bourbon. As soon as he made his intention to hit alcoholic drinks, Trump threatened to impose 200% rates on Champagne and “Made in EU” wine.

Let’s take a step back and Let’s go back to early February. To be precise, the first of February Trump announced 25% rates on Canadian and Mexican goods, with a rate of 10% lower for Canadian oil. But a few hours before their entry into force, scheduled for February 4, Trump agreed to delay the move of a month.

We arrive on March 4th: the duties enter into force and affect imports from Mexico, such as avocado and tomatoes, and Canada, like timber.
Three days later, Trump granted another one-month extension to the two countries, this time on the products covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada (Usmca) agreement-a pact that the US leader signed during his first term in 2020.

In response to the break, Canada has postponed their second wave of retaliation rates on US products for a value of 125 billion dollars (87 billion dollars) to April 2nd. Trump justified the rates on the Vitali’s neighbors and commercial partners of the United States, together with China, as an answer to illegal immigration and Fenanyl fatal drug that enters his country. There Commercial war is also extended to Beijing. China is the country with which the United States have the largest commercial deficit, equal to over 295 billion dollars last year.

On February 4, the duties of 10% on goods from the country considered the world factory, increased to 20% on 4 March, entered into force.
Beijing reacted by imposing duties of 10 and 15 percent from Monday on a series of agricultural imports from the United States, from soy to corn, from chicken to beef.

Beijing has also applied 15% duties on the U.S. liquefied coal and natural gas and 10% on oil and other goods. China has also rejected its alleged role in the supply chain of Fentanyl, stating that she collaborated with Washington and claiming that the rates would not solve the drug problem.

On the old continent Trump said that the European Union products to 27 countries will be affected with a rate of 25%, claiming that the blockage has “taken advantage of us”. Conti in hand the EU, which has a commercial surplus of 50 billion dollars with the United States. Meanwhile, the investors circled in red the date of April 2, the date for which Trump also signed acts that impose “mutual rates” that could hit both the allies and the opponents, right by April 2.

The duties would be adapted to each commercial partner of the United States and would take into account the rates that impose on American assets, as well as taxes that the White House has defined discriminatory, such as value -added taxes. April 2 is also the day when the delayed rates of Mexico and Canada should enter into force. Trump has declared that the rates on cars, semiconductors and pharmaceutical products could enter into force on April 2, with a rate of about 25%. As for computer chips and pharmaceutical products, he said they could “increase substantially over a year”.