President Donald Trump’s trade war will escalate this week, with another round of tariffs expected on allies and Chinese retaliatory duties on U.S. goods.
Trump announced on Sunday that he would implement 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imported into the United States, and on Monday a top White House economic adviser told the Washington Examiner that remained the plan.
“The president has spoken about what he wants to do today, and we’ll see how the calendar works, but we expect an announcement,” White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassert said outside the West Wing.
Hassert downplayed the upset from allies and trading partners, such as Canada, to the coming announcement after Canada and Mexico last week negotiated a monthlong delay in across-the-board 25% duties by promising to take action against illegal immigration and drugs, particularly fentanyl.
“Let’s wait and see what comes out,” he said.
Trump told reporters Sunday on Air Force One, en route to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, that the steel and aluminum tariffs would be imposed on top of already existing duties, but he did not specify when they would take effect. Canada and Mexico were exempted from similar tariffs during the president’s first administration, but duties on the European Union were not lifted until former President Joe Biden entered office.
Trump views tariffs as “beautiful,” using them to protect U.S. jobs and raise revenue, though critics contend they also raise consumer prices.
Monday’s steel and aluminum tariffs precede a separate announcement later this week regarding reciprocal duties, which Trump previewed last week during his press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
“The president’s talked about reciprocal tariffs since I first met him in 2017,” Hassert told the Washington Examiner. “He thinks that it’s not fair that we have trading partners that charge tariffs two or three times what we charge.”
Earlier, during an interview with CNBC, Hassert cited India as an example of an ally and trading partner with “enormously high” tariffs compared to the U.S. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to be at the White House on Thursday.
After Trump’s announcement on Sunday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who is seeking reelection, took to social media to excoriate the president and predicted more “chaos” over the “next four years.”
“Shifting goalposts and constant chaos, putting our economy at risk,” he wrote.
Ontario has been running ads, including during Sunday’s Super Bowl, promoting the province as a U.S. “ally to the north.”
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Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs coincide with China’s retaliatory trade measures against the U.S. beginning, after the president last week placed an additional 10% duty on all Chinese goods.
China’s levies include a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas and a 10% duty on oil, agricultural machinery, and large-engine cars, in addition to export controls on 25 rare metals. China also began an anti-monopoly investigation into Google and added PVH, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, to its “unreliable entity” list.