The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
South Korea has already complained to the World Trade Organization over five steel anti-dumping duties and countervailing measures imposed by the United States.
Ming concluded in a commentary that the tariffs will “not solve the underlying problem of high cost of steelmaking in the US” and would ultimately cost jobs.
Those concerns were echoed Friday by the European Union and the WTO, whose director-general Roberto Azevedo noted that “a trade war is in no-one’s interests. The WTO will be watching the situation very closely.”
– ‘Rust belt’ –
Trump’s policy may play well initially in the “rust belt” — home to in-decline heavy industry were he picked up a sizeable number of disaffected voters’ ballots in 2016.
Asked if the policy will go down well with this constituency, Driffield said: “Well he thinks they will. The rust belt is his key working class constituency. This will play very well with them, who feel that they have been unfairly hit by cheaper competition from Asia.”
But Driffield said any benefits of such protectionism were liable only to prove very short term.
Economists from the Berenberg group, have voiced fears about the longer-term wider impact of what they termed a “wrong-headed” policy.
“Whatever the reason, imposition of these tariffs is bad economic policy and its timing is inopportune, in our view,” the group indicated.
Although tariff fees would be dwarfed by overall volume of imported goods, “the danger is if these tariffs adversely jar confidence — perhaps fuelled by foreign retaliation — heightened uncertainties would lead businesses to tone back their expansion plans,” leading to a “material” negative economic impact through reduced trade flows.
The Berenberg group’s Mickey Levy and Roiana Reid said the “history of international trade policy shows that the nations that impose barriers to trade are hurt the most” and said the Trump administration “would be wise to reconsider and withdraw its proposal.”
