WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump insisted Monday that he\u2019s \u201cnot backing down\u201d on his plan to impose stiff tariffs on imported steel and aluminum despite anxious warnings from House Speaker Paul Ryan and other congressional Republicans of a possible trade war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president said that North American neighbors Canada and Mexico would not get any relief from his plan to place the tariffs on the imports but suggested he might be willing to exempt the two longstanding allies if they agreed to better terms for the North American Free Trade Agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo, we\u2019re not backing down,\u201d Trump said in the Oval Office, seated with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a very bad deal with Mexico, we\u2019ve had a very bad deal with Canada \u2014 it\u2019s called NAFTA,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president opened the door to exempting the two countries from the planned tariffs, telling reporters, \u201cthat would be, I would imagine, one of the points that we\u2019ll negotiate.\u201d But he added, \u201cIf they aren\u2019t going to make a fair NAFTA deal, we\u2019re just going to leave it this way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump spoke shortly after a spokeswoman for House Speaker Ryan said the GOP leader was \u201cextremely worried\u201d about the tariffs setting off a trade war and had urged the White House \u201cto not advance with this plan.\u201d Republican leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee, meanwhile, circulated a letter opposing Trump\u2019s tariff plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The administration says the tariffs are necessary to preserve the American industries \u2014 and that imposing them is a national security imperative. But Trump\u2019s comments and tweets earlier in the day suggested he was also using them as leverage in the current talks to revise NAFTA. The latest round of a nearly yearlong renegotiation effort is concluding this week in Mexico City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He tweeted, \u201cTariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed. Also, Canada must treat our farmers much better. Highly restrictive. Mexico must do much more on stopping drugs from pouring into the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the meantime, Trump\u2019s tariff plan has been branded \u201cabsolutely unacceptable\u201d by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission has said the European Union could respond by taxing American goods including Bourbon, blue jeans and Harley Davidson motorcycles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tariffs will be made official in the next two weeks, White House officials said Monday, as the administration defended the protectionist decision from critics in Washington and overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking on \u201cFox and Friends,\u201d White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said: \u201c25 percent on steel, and the 10 percent on aluminum, no country exclusions \u2014 firm line in the sand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s pronouncement last week that he would impose the tariffs roiled markets and rankled allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The across-the-board action would break with the recommendation of the Pentagon, which pushed for more targeted tariffs on metals imports from countries like China and warned that a wide-ranging move would jeopardize national security partnerships. But Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose agency oversaw reviews of the industries that recommended the tariffs, said Sunday on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week\u201d that Trump is \u201ctalking about a fairly broad brush.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the sweeping action would let China \u201coff the hook,\u201d adding the tariffs would drive a wedge between the U.S. and its allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChina wins when we fight with Europe,\u201d he said on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d \u2033China wins when the American consumer has higher prices because of tariffs that don\u2019t affect Chinese behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has threatened to tax European cars if the EU boosts tariffs on American products in response to the president\u2019s plan to increase duties on steel and aluminum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
British Prime Minister Theresa May raised her \u201cdeep concern\u201d at the tariff announcement in a phone call with Trump Sunday. May\u2019s office says she noted that multilateral action was the only way to resolve the problem of global overcapacity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Ross rejected threats of retaliation from American allies as \u201cpretty trivial\u201d and not much more than a \u201crounding error.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Navarro argued Monday that \u201cthere are virtually no costs here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you put a 10 percent tariff on aluminum, it\u2019s a cent and a half on a six pack of beer and it\u2019s $25,000 on a $330 million (Boeing 777),\u201d Navarro said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trade politics often cut along regional, rather than ideological, lines, as politicians reflect the interests of the hometown industries and workers. But rarely does a debate open so wide a rift between a president and his party \u2014 leaving him almost exclusively with support from his ideological opposites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Labor unions and liberal Democrats are in the unusual position of applauding Trump\u2019s approach on grounds it will bolster jobs in a depleted industry, while Republicans and an array of business groups are warning of dire economic and political consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 2016 election, Trump\u2019s criticism of trade agreements and China\u2019s trade policies found support with working-class Americans whose wages had stagnated over the years. Victories in big steel-producing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana demonstrated that his tough trade talk had a receptive audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both House candidates in next week\u2019s special election in Pennsylvania have embraced the president\u2019s plans for tariffs. They addressed the topic Saturday in a debate that aired on WTAE in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor too long, China has been making cheap steel and they\u2019ve been flooding the market with it. It\u2019s not fair and it\u2019s not right. So I actually think this is long overdue,\u201d said Democratic candidate Conor Lamb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnfortunately, many of our competitors around the world have slanted the playing field, and their thumb has been on the scale, and I think President Trump is trying to even that scale back out,\u201d said Republican candidate Rick Saccone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Trump\u2019s GOP allies on Capitol Hill have little use for the tariff approach. They argue that other industries that rely on steel and aluminum products will suffer. The cost of new appliances, cars and buildings will rise if the president follows through, they warn, and other nations could retaliate. The end result could erode the president\u2019s base of support with rural America and even the blue-collar workers the president says he trying to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is always retaliation, and typically a lot of these countries single out agriculture when they do that. So, we\u2019re very concerned,\u201d said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis., asked the administration to reconsider its stance. He said American companies could move their operations abroad and not face retaliatory tariffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Trump spoke shortly after a spokeswoman for House Speaker Ryan said the GOP leader was \u201cextremely worried\u201d about the tariffs setting off a trade war and had urged the White House \u201cto not advance with this plan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":61349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[104,106,31,15,68,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[5714],"class_list":["post-20614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acquisition-update","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-management","category-leadership","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"D7VLQQCQVJBEXCROSCO7AN7KQ4","arc_canonical_url":"\/management\/leadership\/2018\/03\/05\/trump-says-he-wont-back-down-on-tariffs-plan\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n