EU/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s announcement of punitive steel tariffs may raise U.S. prices short term, but in Europe they could have the opposite effect. … ‘Diverted trade flows threaten Europe with a new steel glut when as things are the EU market is far from tackling [its own] import crisis,’ said Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, president of the German Steel Federation. ‘If the EU doesn’t act, our steel industry is going to be left footing the bill for American protectionism.’ … ‘The problem…won’t get solved with such unilateral measures,’ said Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday in Berlin. ‘Tariffs can’t be in anyone’s interest at all.’ … In a poll of 109 companies conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany at the end of February, 93% said that the unilateral measures from the U.S. weren’t going to help the U.S. economy or solve the global issue of overcapacity in the steel market. Among the surveyed companies, 92% expected that President Trump’s announcement would likely or very likely ignite more tariffs from other countries world-wide. The result would be ‘a downward spiral in which everyone loses,’ according to Berhard Mattes, the president of AmCham Germany.”
-Zeke Turner, “Europe Fears Return of Steel Glut as U.S. Imposes Tariffs: Decision to impose tariffs could divert a stream of cheap steel towards the EU,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 4, 2018 11:48am