The Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs are provoking a chain reaction around the globe, as governments from Europe to Canada prepare to erect barriers to prevent cheap metal once bound for the United States from entering their markets.
Eleven countries including Japan and Canada signed a landmark Asia-Pacific trade agreement without the United States on Thursday in what one minister called a powerful signal against protectionism and trade wars.
President Trump on Thursday imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum but offered relief to some U.S. allies, a move that marks his administration’s most protectionist step yet but stops short of the global tariffs his GOP allies begged him to avoid.
Some might call renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement a solution in search of a problem. Other might say it’s a necessary updating of the 23-year-old pact. One Canadian attorney specializing in international trade law calls it "a mess."