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Trump set to authorize steel, aluminum tariffs on Thursday

Reuters  |  WASHINGTON 

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The on Wednesday raised the possibility that impending hefty U. S. tariffs on and aluminum imports could exclude a clutch of countries other than and as planned to authorize the measures on Thursday.

Trump is expected to sign a presidential proclamation establishing the tariffs during a ceremony scheduled for 3:30 p.m. (2030 GMT) on Thursday, a source familiar with the situation said. A senior U. S. said the measures would take effect about two weeks after Trump signs the proclamation.

The tariffs would impose a duty of 25 percent on and 10 percent on aluminium to counter cheap imports, especially from China, that he says undermine U. S. industry and jobs.

It was not immediately clear whether the proclamation would list countries to be exempted as pressure grew for Trump to exclude U. S. allies from the action.

"We expect that the will sign something by the end of the week and there are potential carve-outs for and based on national security, and possibly other countries as well based on that process," told a "It will be country by country, and it will be based on national security."

Action that does not include exemptions risks retaliatory tariffs on U. S. exports - not least by and - and complicates already tough talks on the (NAFTA).

Trump said on Monday that and would only be excluded after the successful renegotiation of NAFTA.

The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 stock index ended slightly lower after a volatile session after Trump promised the tariffs but then said and could be exempt. The <. SPX> closed 0.05 percent lower after being down 0.4 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average <. DJI> ended down 0.33 percent. The U. S. dollar <. DXY> pared gains to end little changed, while the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso pared some losses.

The departure of Trump's Gary Cohn, who was seen as a bulwark against Trump's economic nationalism, clears the way for greater influence by trade hard-liners such as and Peter Navarro, Trump's trade policy adviser, and the possibility that the tariffs will be implemented.

Sanders said Trump was considering several candidates to fill Cohn's position, while Navarro said he was not short-listed for the job.

In his first tweet on Wednesday, Trump showed no sign of backing down, saying the had lost more than 55,000 factories and 6 million jobs and let its trade deficit soar since the administration of

TARIFF WARNINGS

As pressure mounted against the tariffs, a leading group warned that the move would imperil U. S. and jobs. Iowa's congressional delegation, including two Republican senators, wrote to Trump expressing concern that the tariffs would hit the state's farmers.

"We won't drive the to over 3 percent growth or continue to create jobs if we go down this path," the of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, said in a statement. "We urge the administration to take this risk seriously."

With demand for expected to increase, Corp said it would restart one of two blast furnaces and and rehire 500 employees at its Granite City, Illinois, plant. Shares of , and lifted the 1500 index <. SPCOMSTEEL>.

A report from the on Wednesday noted that four of the U. S. central bank's 12 districts saw a "marked increase" in prices due in part to a decline in foreign competition.

(Additional reporting by David Shepardson, and in Washington, and Tom Miles in Geneva; Writing by and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by and James Dalgleish)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Thu, March 08 2018. 04:57 IST
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