Trump’s trade chief says additional tariffs fit existing treaties
President Donald Trump’s trade chief expressed assurance that the administration can implement new tariffs while adhering to the terms of bilateral agreements, asserting that “a deal’s a deal” for economies such as the European Union and Japan that established limits on the US levies imposed on their exports. The White House late Tuesday unveiled a proposal to impose import taxes of no less than 10 percent on 60 economies, subsequent to a Section 301 investigation examining the practices of trade partners regarding goods purportedly produced through forced labour. That has generated uncertainty for several trading partners, including the EU, which negotiated a tariff agreement nearly a year ago in Turnberry, Scotland.
“We understand that a deal is a deal,” Jamieson Greer stated. “We aim to ensure the resolution of trading practices identified as problematic in our investigations, and we will certainly consider the Turnberry deal.” He stated, “we believe that there’s room to accommodate that deal within the context of what we’re doing, provided that the European Union delivers on the Turnberry deal.” The EU and US reached a consensus on a free-trade agreement in July, which stipulates that the bloc will eliminate tariffs on US industrial goods in return for a 15 percent cap on its exports. Trump has issued a warning regarding the potential increase of tariffs on European automobiles to 25 percent should the agreement fail to receive ratification by July 4.
The EU’s trade chief, Maros Sefcovic, reiterated Greer’s assertion that a deal is a deal. “This is absolutely crucial for us that at the end of the process we would end up well within the Turnberry parameters and for this this is 15 per cent all-inclusive,” Sefcovic told. “That is our expectation, and that was also my communication to Ambassador Greer.” A separate, ongoing 301 probe into industrial overcapacity is “a matter of weeks” from completion, Greer said. “It’s on a little bit of a different time schedule” given its complexity, he said. “With all the deals the president has struck over the past year, these are historic deals — our view is we want to stick to these deals,” he stated.
“We aim to ensure that countries, including Japan and others, are adequately addressing the identified unfair practices.” Greer stated that China was given advanced notice regarding the forced-labor announcement and that discussions will persist. “We’re being very responsible about the relationship,” Greer said of talks with Beijing, “We have to protect our economy, we have to have a certain level of tariffs — and our expectation is that as we go through these Section 301 investigations we’ll continue to have conversations with China to try to mitigate the challenges we identify at the same time having an appropriate tariff level as part of that mitigation.”
