AUSTRALIA/CANADA/FOREIGN POLICY/MEXICO/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/GARY D. COHN: “President Trump defied opposition from his own party and protests from overseas on Thursday [3-8-18] as he signed an order imposing stiff and sweeping new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. But he sought to soften the impact on America’s closest allies with a more flexible plan than originally envisioned. … ‘The actions we are taking today are not a matter of choice, they are a matter of necessity for our security,’ Mr. Trump said in a ceremony at the White House where he officially authorized the tariffs. The president said the measures were taken to address ‘a growing crisis in our steel and aluminum production that threatens the security of our nation and also is bad for us economically and with jobs.’ … ‘We’re going to be very flexible,’ Mr. Trump said as he hosted a morning cabinet meeting several hours before an event to sign the order. ‘At the same time, we have some friends and some enemies where we have been tremendously taken advantage of over the years.’ Mr. Trump said that his tariff order would be tailored to exclude some countries and would give him the authority to raise or lower levies on a country-by-country basis and add or take countries off the list as he deems fit. ‘We’ve been treated so badly over the years by other countries,’ Mr. Trump said during the ceremony. … Mr. Trump indicated that the tariffs would go into effect on Canada and Mexico ‘if we don’t make the deal on Nafta and if we terminate Nafta because they are unable to make a deal that’s fair.’ Mr. Trump singled out Australia as an example of another country that could be excluded, citing the trade surplus that the United States maintains with Australia, … Mr. Trump then suggested that Mr. [Gary D.] Cohn might eventually return to the administration. ‘I have a feeling you’ll be back,’ the president told him. In a teasing voice, he added: ‘I don’t know if I can put him in the same position though. He’s not quite as strong on those tariffs as we want.'”
-Peter Baker and Ana Swanson, “Trump Authorizes Tariffs in Defiance of Allies at Home and Abroad,” The New York Times online, Mar. 8, 2018