WASHINGTON- US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation increasing tariffs on derivative steel products by an additional 25 percent and boosting duties on derivative aluminum products by an additional 10 percent.
Trump said Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and South Korea are exempt from the additional tariffs on derivative steel products, and Argentina, Australia, Canada and Mexico are exempt from the added duties on derivative aluminum articles.
Trump has imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to help boost US production, which he says is a national security issue.
Since the imposition of tariffs, Trump said, imports of steel and aluminum have declined but imports of derivative products, like steel nails and aluminum cables, have increased.
Trump said “foreign producers of these derivative articles have increased shipments of such articles to the United States to circumvent the duties on aluminum articles and steel articles.” He said the increased tariffs would be effective on Feb. 8.
Meanwhile, Britain will set out more details about its objectives for a free trade deal with the European Union next month after the country leaves the bloc on Jan. 31, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said.
“We are going to publish our objectives for the negotiation (…) in due course after the 31st,” he told BBC television’s Andrew Marr program on Sunday.
At stake are the terms of trade from 2021, when an 11-month post-Brexit transition period is due to expire. Negotiations between London and Brussels are expected to start in March.
“The key issue is that we will have control of our rules, we will not be a rule taker, we will not diverge for the sake of diverging, we start from a position of alignment,” Barclay said.
“But the key opportunity is that we will be able to set our standards, high standards, on worker’s rights, on the environment, on state aid as part of that trade policy.”
The European Commission, which negotiates on behalf of the 27 remaining EU members, will thrash out its objectives next month before putting them to EU governments on Feb. 25. Negotiations are expected to start after that.
Barclay reiterated the UK’s ambition to agree a “zero-tariff, zero-quota, broadly ambitious trade policy,” with the European Union, while working to strike deals with other countries around the world, including the United States. — Reuters
