Trump could grant the EU exemption from steel and aluminium tariffs
Robert Lighthizer, US trade representative, on Wednesday said the United States could be looking to avoid a trade war with some of its top allies, with the EU, Australia, South Korea, Argentina and Brazil maybe exempted from the tariffs on steel and aluminium.
Lighthizer, who was speaking to the House Ways and the Means Committee, still hasn’t confirmed if these countries will definitely be exempt from the tariffs that are set to take effect on Friday.
President Donald Trump will later announce around $50bn of tariffs against China over intellectual-property violations on Thursday, Forbes reported. The White House said the president had decided to take action based on China’s "state-led, market-distorting efforts to force, pressure, and steal U.S. technologies and intellectual property”.
Although Lighthizer made clear that while details are being worked out with certain countries, he said tariffs were designed not to disrupt supply chains.
“Nobody wins from a trade war," he said. "We certainly don’t want a trade war. On the other hand, you have to ask yourself, can we go on with an $800 (and growing) billion trade deficit?”.
He added: “Our view is that we have a very serious problem of losing our intellectual property, which is really the biggest single advantage of the American economy. We are losing that to China."
The Trump administration already confirmed that Canada and Mexico would not be included in the tariffs and this decision has been integrated in the NAFTA renegotiation talks.
The President will also increase tariffs for countries like China on Thursday with $60bn in new levies on their technology and telecommunications sector to avoid “the loss of US intellectual property”.
If the countries mentioned by Lighthizer are given exemptions that would leave top four exporters to the US out of the tariffs.
According to The Telegraph, one EU source said Germany believed it was close to acquiring an exemption to the tariffs but was waiting for the President to sign it himself.
The Trump administration is set to decide by the end of April which countries will have this privilege.