challenge
by Jim Romahn
July 17/18
Pot’s calling tariff kettles black
In a case of the pot calling kettles black, the United States has launched five separate complaints at the World Trade Organization against Canada, China, the European Union, Mexico and Turkey, for imposing retaliatory tariffs.
United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement Monday that recent tariffs implemented by the U.S. on foreign steel and aluminum are "justified under international agreements," but retaliatory measures from other countries in response are not.
In fact the U.S. used national security provisions to impose the tariffs on steel and aluminum, hitting a list of its most loyal allies without citing a single shred of evidence of threats to U.S. security.
"Instead of working with us to address a common problem, some of our trading partners have elected to respond with retaliatory tariffs designed to punish American workers, farmers and companies," Lighthizer said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly said he only reluctantly imposed retaliatory tariffs in an effort to bring United States President Donald Trump to his senses.
The United States earlier this year put a tariff of 10 per cent on imported aluminum, and 25 per cent on steel, in addition to other targeted measures on foreign-made goods.
Other nations hit by those tariffs have launched counter-measures of their own, which so far target $24 billion US worth of American-made goods, but are soon set to increase sharply to apply to hundreds of billions or dollars worth of U.S. exports.
Trump has also said he intends to imposed hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tariffs against a long list of products from China.
If Trump wants the World Trade Organization to deal with the complaints, he'll need to get off the pot and finally nominate some people to sit on WTO complaints panels.
It all goes to show how much chaos an idiot with power can generate.
