COMMERCE/NAFTA/NATIONAL SECURITY/TARIFFS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is casting the widest possible net in considering whether imported autos should be subject to tariffs based on national security grounds, worrying auto exporters from Mexico to Germany and generating complaints from Republican lawmakers. The Commerce Department, which is directing the probe into whether a national security trade law should apply to imported autos, hasn’t ruled out the possibility that such tariffs would apply to countries such as Canada and Mexico, where the U.S. has a free-trade agreements. Currently, automobiles produced by U.S. neighbors trade duty free under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Current talks to renegotiate Nafta are at a stalemate. The global reaction to those tariffs was swift and pointed, with countries from the European Union to Japan issuing strong rebukes. Equally worrisome for Mr. Trump, however, was the reaction of his own Congress. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), chairman of the Senate committee that oversees trade, called the Trump administration’s move ‘deeply misguided.'”
-William Mauldin and Siobhan Hughes, “Trump’s GOP Allies Worry Over Possible New U.S. Auto Tariffs,” The Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2018 12:38 pm