Europe, several more countries excluded from US steel tariffs

The European Union, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and South Korea are among the nations that will get an initial exemption from looming steel and aluminum tariffs from the Trump administration.

That’s the word from the U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer. President Donald Trump had already said that Canada and Mexico would be excluded.

Trump is planning to impose tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum – trade penalties aimed at China for flooding the world with cheap steel and aluminum.

Lighthizer tells the Senate Finance Committee that there are countries involved in various stages of trade talks with the U.S., and that Trump decided “to pause the imposition of tariffs with respect to those countries.”

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has welcomed what he saw as a European Union exemption from the U.S. threat to impose steel and aluminum import tariffs. Kurz Tweeted from an EU summit that the U.S. move was “the result of the Europeans’ clear position in the talks with the U.S. A trade war would have damaged both sides.”

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS