Effective immediately, US to restore steel & aluminium tariffs on Brazil, Argentina: Trump
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Trump said a strong dollar makes it 'very hard for our manufactures & farmers to fairly export their goods'.
President Trump said today that "effective immediately" the US would be restoring "tariffs on all steel and aluminium" on Brazil and Argentina.
Trump blamed "massive devaluation of currencies" for the recent tariffs, adding, "the Federal Reserve should likewise act so that countries, of which there are many, no longer take advantage of our strong dollar by further devaluing their currencies."
Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies. which is not good for our farmers. Therefore, effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel & Aluminum that is shipped into the U.S. from those countries. The Federal....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2019
Trump said the devaluation was "not good for our farmers".
"US Markets are up as much as 21 per cent since the announcement of tariffs on 3/1/2018 - and the US is taking in massive amounts of money (and giving some to our farmers, who have been targeted by China)," the US president said in a tweet.
.....Reserve should likewise act so that countries, of which there are many, no longer take advantage of our strong dollar by further devaluing their currencies. This makes it very hard for our manufactures & farmers to fairly export their goods. Lower Rates & Loosen - Fed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2019
The US president said a strong dollar makes it "very hard for our manufactures & farmers to fairly export their goods," while imploring the Federal Reserve to "lower rates & loosen".
Trump has been fighting a tariff battle with China in the past one year with Beijing insisting US tariffs must be rolled back as part of any phase one trade deal with Washington.
U.S. Markets are up as much as 21% since the announcement of Tariffs on 3/1/2018 - and the U.S. is taking in massive amounts of money (and giving some to our farmers, who have been targeted by China)!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2019
Last week, Trump had said the US was in the "final throes" of a deal which has hit the world economy amid global uncertainty.
Trump had warned that failure to get a trade deal with China will prompt "more tariffs".
"If we don’t make a deal with China, I’ll just raise the tariffs even higher," Trump had said.
Experts fear failure to reach a deal would hamper sales in the run-up to Christmas.
In September, Trump had imposed 15 per cent tariff on $125 billion of Chinese goods. According to reports, China has asked for the September 1 tariffs to be removed completely during trade talks with US officials.