Trump's trade moves draw support -- from Democrats
Republicans are challenging his protectionist stands; while some Democrats in blue-collar districts are applauding
IN the last two weeks the Trump administration has been on the offensive when it comes to US trade policy, trying to demonstrate once again that the populist occupying the White House was intent on advancing the economic nationalist agenda he had run on during the 2016 election campaign.
First, the US Commerce Department announced that it was launching a probe of car and car parts imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 that could lead to new US tariffs similar to those imposed on imported steel and aluminium in March. It was signalling that the new front on the trade war was over foreign car imports.
The White House defended the move to impose new tariffs of as much as 25 per cent on vehicle and car parts imports, by arguing that those imports threaten national security, despite the fact that Japan, Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Germany - which manufactured most of the foreign cars sold in the US last year - were important US strategic allies. Then early last week, the White House made it clear that it was moving forward with its threat to impose tariffs on US$50 billion in Chinese imports and to restrict Chinese investment in US high-tech industries, preventing Beijing from accessing sensitive US technology.
