While Trump's trade war with China has seemingly been called off for now, his tariffs on steel and aluminum imports have already been implemented in some parts of the world.
A handful of countries where Trump's tariff on metals have already been implemented informed the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday that they're preparing to retaliate with some specific targets in mind.
The Japan Times reports that Japan is preparing a list of specific good to target.
Japan informed the WTO it had the right to impose tariffs on U.S. goods worth ¥50 billion ($451 million) — equivalent to the impact of the U.S. tariffs newly imposed on Japanese metal products, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
But the ministry stopped short of saying Tokyo might take action, saying: “We plan to decide appropriately, considering the impact on Japanese companies as well as related U.S. measures.”
More specifically, the European Union (EU) and India informed the WTO that they're preparing to impose duties on agriculture, boats, and motorcycles.
The EU list would target $7.1 billion worth of U.S. imports ranging from orange juice to motorboats, with the aim of collecting $1.6 billion in tariff revenue. The amount reflects the theoretical additional revenue the U.S. would have earned with the new duties on imports of EU steel and aluminum based on 2017 import data.
Following the same formula, India released a shorter list of U.S. imports ranging from wheat to motorcycles on which it would increase duties.
Reuters reports that Turkey is also preparing to target American agriculture.
ANKARA, May 18 (Reuters) - Turkey will impose counter-measures on the United States in retaliation against steel and aluminum import tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Friday, citing officials from the economy ministry.
The measures will target U.S.-based coal, paper, walnuts, almonds, tobacco, paddy, whiskey, automobiles, cosmetics, machinery and equipment, and petrochemical products, the officials were quoted as saying.
Individually, some of these actions may not amount to much, but collectively it's going to add up.
The Trump regime may not be as willing to back away from these tariffs because, unlike China, they cannot cripple our economy because we don't depend so heavily on them. That doesn't mean they can't do some damage.