Trump on Trade

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer resources and analysis on President Donald J. Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

“Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum is the most significant set of U.S. import restrictions in nearly half a century,” concludes Senior Fellow Edward Alden in a blog post. “It will have huge consequences for the global trading order.”

“Employment in the U.S. auto industry will suffer from Trump’s tariffs to a vastly greater degree than it could possibly benefit in the U.S. steel industry,” warns Senior Fellow Benn Steil in a new data analysis, with the total expected job loss being “equivalent to almost one-third of the entire U.S. steel industry workforce.”

Negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) continue to hang in the balance as upcoming elections in Mexico and the United States threaten to doom any new agreement, writes Senior Fellow Shannon K. O’Neil in Bloomberg View.

“If the president is offering the prospects of eliminating the tariffs . . . when NAFTA is renegotiated . . . suddenly the incentive to invest is no longer there,” explains Distinguished Fellow and former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. Listen to the CFR conference call with Froman and Alden.

“With Trump imposing tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels along with steel and aluminum—and soon, perhaps, on foreign automobiles—other countries won’t turn the other cheek,” writes Senior Fellow Max Boot in the Washington Post.

President Trump argues that tariffs are necessary to protect U.S. national security, but according to this CFR Backgrounder, many experts argue that the measures could backfire.

The current panic that President Trump has generated over a potential World Trade Organization “collapse and impending trade wars might galvanize the organization to set itself on the right course,” argues University of Hamburg professor Amrita Narlikar in Foreign Affairs.

CFR Experts On Trade

Edward Alden, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow, @edwardalden

Michael Froman, Distinguished Fellow, @MikeFroman

Shannon K. O’Neil, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies, @shannonkoneil

Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics, @BennSteil

Thomas J. Bollyky, Senior Fellow for Global Health, Economics, and Development, @TomBollyky

To be in touch with a CFR expert, please call 212.434.9888 or email [email protected].