Heavy metal duties kick in as US awaits 'best offers' from nations
PARIS: Washington doubled its tariffs on
steel
and
aluminium imports
on Wednesday, the same day President
Donald Trump
's administration expects trading partners to make "best offers" to avoid other punishing import levies from taking effect in early July.
European businesses called on the
European Commission
, which handles trade talks for the 27-nation EU to do everything it can to remove the tariffs, as the bloc's trade negotiator Maros Sefcovic met with US Trade Representative
Jamieson Greer
here. Sefcovic said he "had a productive and constructive discussion" with Greer, without giving any detail on the talks.
"We're advancing in the right direction at pace-and staying in close contact to maintain the momentum," Sefcovic said on X. Late on Tuesday, Trump signed an executive proclamation that activates from Wednesday a hike in the tariffs on imported steel and aluminium to 50% from the 25% rate introduced in March.
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"We started at 25 and then after studying the data more, realised that it was a big help, but more help is needed. And so that is why the 50 is starting tomorrow," White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told a steel industry conference in Washington on Tuesday. The increase came into effect at 12:01 a.m.
The increase applies to all trading partners except Britain, the only country so far to strike a preliminary trade agreement with the US during a 90-day pause on a wider array of Trump tariffs. The rate for steel and aluminium imports from the UK- which does not rank among the top exporters of either metal to the US-will remain at 25% until at least July 9.
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'BEST OFFER' DUE DATE
Wednesday is also when the White House expects trading partners to propose deals that might help them avoid Trump's hefty "reciprocal" tariffs on imports across the board from taking effect in five weeks.
US officials have been in talks with several countries since Trump announced a pause on those tariffs on April 9, but so far only the UK deal has materialised and even that pact is essentially a preliminary framework for more talks.
Reuters reported on Monday that Washington was asking countries to list their best proposals in a number of key areas.
No Reprieve for Vietnam
Washington will not reciprocate even if Hanoi removes all tariffs on American goods, according to US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, as he said Vietnam re-exports a significant volume of Chinese products to the US.
"Absolutely not, absolutely not. That would be the silliest thing we could do," Lutnick said when Republican Senator John Kennedy asked him if the US will respond in kind if Vietnam decides to eliminate all tariffs and trade barriers against American imports, and calling a potential agreement like that "a terrible deal."
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