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After two years of regular escalation of its trade struggles, the Trump administration seems to recognize that the time has come to reach agreements with its allies before the 2020 elections. According to officials and legislators, the The President and his senior advisers increasingly feel that, on the trade front, too many problems remain unresolved and that trade wars – such as military wars – are unfolding optimally.
This prompted the President and his advisers to decide to postpone for six months the decision to impose tariffs on automobiles around the world and to reverse their position last week on the rates they had taken from Canadian and Mexican metal. It was one of the few times the President had chosen to raise a tariff, instead of imposing new ones.
Robert Lighthizer, the president's chief commercial adviser, had been trying for months to persuade Canada and Mexico to accept permanent caps on the amount of metal they send to the United States. But when progress toward a major trade deal with China unexpectedly broke off earlier this month, Mr. Lighthizer decided that it was time to put an end to the battle that was going on. he was leading North America to better focus on the long war with China. , according to people familiar with the deliberations.
He contacted Canadian and Mexican officials, proposing an agreement that the United States would raise its tariffs if countries agreed to prevent future metal increases in the US market, said these people. If these increases occurred, the United States could reimpose tariffs of 10% on aluminum and 25% on steel for the specific products concerned. And Canada and Mexico would agree that if they reacted, it would only be on the American metal and not on the American farmers.
On Monday, Canada and Mexico officially lifted the tariffs they imposed on pork, milk, cheese, wine and other American products, which greatly relieved American farmers, who count two country among the top three export markets, in addition to China.
The collateral damage caused to farmers by the trade conflict with China now appears as a potential obstacle to the re-election of the president. China's tariffs on products such as soybeans and beef and the recent cancellation of a major pork order hit the swing states hard, including Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin.
A survey of 400 US farmers by Purdue University and CME Group, a global markets company, showed that sentiment had dipped in April, due to worries about the worsening tensions with China. Only 28 percent of farmers surveyed said they believed a soybean dispute with China would be settled by July 1, compared to 45 percent in March, while 74 percent of respondents said the timing was ill chosen to make large agricultural investments.
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