U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday refuted a news report claiming his group was contemplating tariff plans restricted to essential imports.
“The story in the Washington Post, quoting so-called anonymous sources, which don’t exist, incorrectly states that my tariff policy will be pared back. That is wrong. The Washington Post knows it’s wrong. It’s just another example of Fake News,” he wrote in a submit on Truth Social.
The Washington Post, citing three sources aware of the matter, reported earlier Monday that Trump aides have been exploring tariff plans that might be utilized to each nation however solely cowl sure sectors deemed essential to nationwide or financial safety, in what would characterize a marked shift from the guarantees Trump made in the course of the 2024 presidential marketing campaign.
European shares and currencies had rallied sharply on Monday after the newspaper report.
Trump, a Republican who takes workplace on Jan. 20, had vowed to impose tariffs of 10% on world imports into the U.S. together with a 60% tariff on Chinese items – duties that commerce specialists say would upend commerce flows, increase prices and draw retaliation towards U.S. exports.
The aides stated the plans are in flux and haven’t been finalized, in response to the newspaper.
It was not clear which sectors the tariffs would goal.
Preliminary discussions have largely targeted on a number of key sectors that the Trump group needs to deliver again to the United States, the Post reported that the individuals stated.
“Those include the defense industrial supply chain (through tariffs on steel, iron, aluminum and copper); critical medical supplies (syringes, needles, vials and pharmaceutical materials); and energy production (batteries, rare earth minerals and even solar panels),” two of the individuals stated, in response to the Post.
Reuters final month reported {that a} Trump transition group doc advisable imposing tariffs on all electrical battery supplies globally in a bid to spice up U.S. manufacturing after which negotiating particular person exemptions with allies.
It known as for charging tariffs on “EV provide chain” imports together with batteries, essential minerals and charging elements. The proposal seen by Reuters stated the administration ought to use Section 232 tariffs, which goal nationwide safety threats, to restrict imports of such merchandise. The Defense Department in recent times has highlighted U.S. strategic vulnerabilities due to China’s dominance of the mining and refining of essential minerals, together with graphite and lithium wanted for batteries, and rare-earth metals utilized in each EV motors and army plane.
Source: www.dailysabah.com