According to two sources, Washington will announce plans to impose taxes on EU aluminum and steel imports as early as Thursday. A magazine reported that President Trump is going to push German cars from the U.S.

Taxes and Cars

Two knowledgeable people on the matter reported that Trump’s decision on metal taxes will land before Friday. There is a deadline on Friday for expiry exemptions granted to Canada, Mexico, and the European Union.

Wirtschaftswoche, a German magazine, reported on Thursday that Donald Trump told Emmanuel Macron, the French President, that he is going to stick to his trade policy. Also, according to the magazine, he will push his policy until Mercedes-Benz cars are not present anymore in New York.

The Trump administration started a national security investigation into truck and car imports last week. Now, they are using the same law from 1962 that he already applied to curb incoming aluminum and steel.

Potential Trade War?

Bruno Le Maire is the French Finance Minister. He met with the U.S. Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, on Thursday. This is the latest meeting in a series of E.U.-U.S. meetings. The goal was to end the stand-off.

After the meeting, however, Le Maire told reporters that it is up to the U.S. officials to decide whether they want to start a trade war with Europe, their biggest partner.

According to him, Europe didn’t want a trade conflict. However, Washington has to back down from unjustifiable, dangerous, and unjustified taxes. He added that the E.U, is going to respond with necessary measures if the U.S. imposes taxes.

Exemptions

The Trump administration gave permanent metal taxes exemptions to some countries. Some of those include Argentina, South Korea, and Australia. However, there is an import quota in each case.

The deadline for exemptions on Friday also affect Canada and Mexico. These countries are in negotiations with the U.S. as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Questions from the American People:

• How will higher import taxes help American businesses? Will retaliatory tariffs from other countries outweigh those benefits?
• How will our economic relationship with other countries affect their cooperation with us in military actions? How will it affect our diplomatic relationships?