Trade war

A new round of tariffs on aluminum and steel went into effect overnight. This time, no U.S. trading partner was spared.

The new tariffs amped up the risk of a global trade war. The European Union on Wednesday vowed to roll out $28 billion in retaliatory levies next month on American products, including bourbon, jeans and agricultural products.

“Jobs are at stake, prices up, nobody needs that,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. Jonathan Reynolds, Britain’s trade secretary, said his country would “keep all options on the table.”

European officials hope they can still strike a deal. But President Trump seems determined to stick with his protectionist policies despite the stock market turmoil that he’s unleashed and regardless of the pushback from business leaders and global allies. “The tariffs are going to be throwing off a lot of money to this country,” Trump told corporate chiefs on Tuesday at a Business Roundtable event in Washington.

They “may go up higher,” Trump added, underscoring that he views tariffs as a way to revive America’s manufacturing sector.

The markets are quiet. Stocks in Europe and Asia are mostly up and U.S. futures are a tick higher. That’s after tariff jitters briefly pushed the S&P 500 into correction territory on Tuesday — the sell-off has wiped roughly $4 trillion off the benchmark index in less than a month — as concerns grow that the levies will push up prices and slow growth.