Domestic steel producer Zekelman Industries filed a lawsuit on Oct. 21 in a Washington, D.C., federal court alleging that the Mexican government breached its 2019 agreement with the U.S. to slow imports of Mexican steel products. The company argued that Mexico's breach of the deal "has devastated the U.S. steel industry," forcing the company to close two plants due to the oversupply of cheap steel (Zekelman Industries v. United States, D.D.C. # 24-02992).
The Aluminum Association is pleased by the hike in Section 301 tariffs on aluminum products -- even though it applies to more products than it wishes were covered -- and says Mexico's reporting is helping with trade remedies covering Chinese, Russian and Belarussian steel.
Predictions of inflation and lost exports if Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump re-wins the White House and imposes global tariffs are well-trod ground.
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Decoupling between the U.S. and China in the most technologically advanced products is real, economists said at an Oct. 21 Peterson Institute for International Economics event, but trade overall between the two countries continues to grow, if more slowly than trade with other partners.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, without naming Trump, criticized his economic approach, saying a broad-based tariff would be like a sales tax.
Officials from Squire Patton Boggs said that if Donald Trump returns to the presidency, a 10% tariff or higher on a vast swath of imports could come very quickly, but what wouldn't be subject to the tariffs is not yet clear.
Donald Trump, in a lengthy interview with Bloomberg's editor-in-chief, tripled down on his tariff policy, calling the word tariff "the most beautiful word in the dictionary," and saying that his plan of a 10% tariff on all non-Chinese imports is not nearly enough to reverse factory closures.
President Donald Trump will be receptive to Sen. Bill Cassidy's proposal to impose a carbon border tax, predicted Dave Banks, a former energy and environment expert in the National Economic Council and National Security Council during the first Trump term.
Trade groups representing corn and soybean farmers say that if Donald Trump imposes 60% tariffs on Chinese imports, as he has promised to do if re-elected, it would devastate their exports to China.