Washington, (EFE).- The United States will double tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50% starting Tuesday, in a new show of force by President Donald Trump, even as courts challenge the legal foundation of his trade policies and doubts persist over deals with the European Union and China.
Trump’s announcement came Friday, a day after a federal appeals court lifted a key injunction by the US Court of International Trade that had blocked much of his istration’s tariff regime announced on Apr. 2, a day dubbed the “liberation day” by Trump.
However, the steel and aluminum tariffs were not affected by that ruling, as they were enacted under the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, not the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), whose use by Trump has drawn judicial scrutiny.
Canada remains the most impacted by the metals tariffs, but countries such as Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Vietnam are also hit on the steel front, while the aluminum duties target the UAE, Russia, and China.
Symbolic venue for a controversial decision
Trump announced a symbolic location: a US steel plant in Pennsylvania, where he also endorsed a controversial 14 billion dollars investment deal with Japan’s Nippon Steel.
The Japanese firm’s bid to take over US steel, which President Trump and former President Biden had previously opposed, has faced strong resistance from the United Steelworkers union.
The deal, which will turn the American steelmaker into a subsidiary of Nippon Steel while retaining its name and headquarters in Pennsylvania, has yet to be finalized.
Despite his earlier opposition, Trump is now portraying the agreement as a strategic “partnership” rather than a merger or acquisition, a pivot many observers see as a political calculation.
‘TACO trade’ and Trump’s shifting strategy
Trump’s reversal comes as financial analysts popularize the term “TACO trade”, short for “Trump Always Chicken Out”, referring to investors betting that the president backs down from his hardline trade threats.
Irritated when asked about the term, Trump denied his threats were empty and insisted that such tactics are part of his negotiation strategy.
Legal maze and diplomatic fallout
Trump’s latest tariff move adds another layer of uncertainty to an already fraught global trade landscape. His istration faces mounting legal battles over the scope and legality of its trade powers, while partners in Brussels and Beijing react with growing frustration.
The European Commission criticized Trump’s decision, especially after both sides had agreed to accelerate negotiations ahead of the July deadline when the current truce on so-called “reciprocal tariffs” is set to expire.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is scheduled to meet with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Wednesday in Paris to seek progress on a broader trade agreement.
Meanwhile, Trump has reignited tensions with China, accusing Beijing, without evidence, of violating a fragile tariff truce brokered in Geneva last month that was set to last until August.
China responded on Monday, saying Washington had broken the deal by imposing new sanctions, including restrictions on chip exports and the cancellation of student visas, part of a series of measures Beijing described as “extreme suppression.”
The White House insisted Tuesday that the presidents of the United States and China, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, will talk on the phone “this week” in order to boost trade negotiations between the two powers, which have accused each other in recent days of violating the bilateral moratorium recently reached in Geneva.
“There will be a leader-to-leader conversation very soon,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt assured a press conference on the possibility of the two chatting on the phone.
During this press conference, she also confirmed that the US sent a letter to its trading partners as a “friendly reminder” that the early July deadline given by Washington for the activation of its misnamed “reciprocal tariffs” is approaching.
“US Trade Representative (Jamieson Greer) sent this letter to all of our trading partners just to give them a friendly reminder that the deadline is approaching,” she said. EFE
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