US President Donald Trump temporarily excludes EU, six other allies, from steel and aluminum tariffs

US President Donald Trump speaks at The Generation Next event at the White House on March 22, 2018. (AFP photo)

US President Donald Trump has temporarily excluded European Union states and six other countries, including Canada and Mexico, from higher US import duties on steel and aluminum.

In a presidential proclamation published Thursday, Trump said he would suspend tariffs for Canada, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea and the European Union, America’s largest trading partner, until May as negotiations continue.

After May 1, Trump would decide whether to permanently exempt the countries based on the status of talks, the White House said in a statement.

Beginning Friday, Washington will impose higher import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, mainly aimed at curbing imports from China.

“I have determined that the necessary and appropriate means to address the threat to the national security posed by imports from steel articles from these countries is to continue these discussions and to exempt steel articles imports from these countries from the tariff, at least at this time,” according to Trump’s proclamation released by the White House.

Exempting the EU would be a significant climbdown for Trump, who said in recent weeks that trade wars were “good, and easy to win”. He has previously hit out at what he called Europe’s “very unfair” trade policies towards the United States.

Though Trump has repeatedly singled out China for unfair trade practices, the EU stood to lose more than Beijing from the tariffs.

The bloc would potentially lose at least $2.4 billion, compared with a loss of $400 million for China, as the EU is one of the largest sources of US steel imports.

Tough on China

Trump moved on a separate trade front earlier Thursday, imposing up to $60 billion in tariffs on China as punishment for the massive trade deficit between the two countries.

Trump signed a presidential memorandum that would impose restrictions on Chinese imports and investment in the US, raising fears of a global trade war.

The goods deficit with China alone rose 8 percent during Trump’s first year in office to a record $375 billion, or nearly half the total global gap between US imports and exports.

The new measures are part of Trump’s so-called “America First” policy, which seeks to rewrite the rules of global commerce in favor of the US.