America Declares War on Its Friends

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is
separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

May 31, 2018

Hanna Barczyk

To hear the Trump administration tell the tale, it must hit the European Union, Canada and
Mexico with steel and aluminum tariffs to stop Chinese manufacturers from flooding markets
with these metals and, in turn, protect American workers. That’s a fantasy. Chinese steel mills
and aluminum smelters will keep chugging away, and more likely, American farmers and
products like Kentucky bourbon, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Iowa beef will bear the brunt
of these new tariffs — even as the tariffs invite a trade war.
President Trump had initially exempted these allies from the 25 percent tariff on steel and 10
percent tariff on aluminum he announced in March. But on Thursday, after several weeks of
negotiations, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the administration decided to go ahead
with the tariffs starting on Friday because the talks were taking too long. It’s hard to credit
impatience as the cause. More likely, the administration is trying to burnish its tough-on-trade
image after criticism of several trade concessions to China.
These tariffs aren’t aimed directly at Beijing, but the idea is that they would limit overall
competition. The administration says the new tariffs will keep China from avoiding existing tariffs
by shipping its products through other countries. Yet, it has provided little evidence that China
does that. Some Chinese steel is sent to the United States after it has been reprocessed in third
countries, but that is a legal practice.
Not only will this do nothing to reduce steel and aluminum capacity in China, it will more than
likely prompt the European Union, Canada and Mexico to retaliate by imposing new tariffs on
American products, hurting businesses and workers across the country. The president is also
effectively isolating the United States from its closest allies — the very countries it needs to
work with to put pressure on China to change its economic policies.
Even the Aluminum Association, which represents most American-based producers of the
metal, said it was “disappointed” by Mr. Trump’s decision. “Today’s action does little to address
the China challenge while potentially alienating allies” and disrupting supplies of aluminum and
raw materials that American producers need, the group’s president and chief executive, Heidi
Brock, said in a statement.

Indeed, why would Europe, Canada and Mexico, which also suffer from Chinese overproduction
of steel and aluminum, have any incentive to work with an administration that seems to care so
little about the consequences of its actions on their economies and workers?
Mr. Trump’s bullying appears to be pushing voters in at least one country toward more extremist
leaders. In Mexico, Mr. Trump’s combative attitude appears to be helping the leftist presidential
candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador ahead of a July 1 election. Many experts fear that Mr.
López Obrador has authoritarian tendencies and could undermine democracy in Mexico if he
becomes president.
The tariffs may be Mr. Trump’s way to demonstrate that he will still punish countries for cheating
the United States. They arrive on the heels of lawmakers’ criticism that the president has gone
easy on the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE. Even after the company flagrantly
violated American sanctions against the export of advanced technology to Iran and North Korea
and was identified as a security risk by American intelligence agencies, the Trump
administration said last week that it would let ZTE continue buying American semiconductors
and other components. That agreement, which the president said was meant to protect Chinese
jobs, appears even more suspicious in light of the fact that it came shortly after China awarded
trademarks to Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka. It also came after a Chinese state-owned company
struck a deal to build a theme park with an Indonesian business next to a hotel and golf course
that the Indonesian company is building with the Trump Organization.
If the president’s intent is to establish a reputation as a champion of industry and workers, he is
making a hash of it. His decision to impose tariffs on American allies will only weaken American
leadership while doing nothing to address the underlying problems in the steel and aluminum
industries.