What Do Steel Tariffs Have to Do With Iran? Plenty - Bloomberg

What Do Steel Tariffs Have to Do With Iran? Plenty - Bloomberg:

"Europe’s temporary waiver from U.S. import quotas on steel and aluminum is about to expire, and most experts are pessimistic that a U.S.-EU trade war can be avoided. They can’t fathom a trade deal that would satisfy both U.S. President Donald Trump and European Union leaders — at least not a conventional trade deal. 

But a conventional trade deal does not seem to be what the Trump White House really has in mind. Instead, it wants to exchange trade peace for foreign and security policy concessions. That’s a novel — and potentially fraught — way for an American president to do business with his closest allies. But in the short term, it might deliver some results that Trump can use to declare victory.

Trump’s hope seems to be that the threat of tariffs gives him leverage to get the cooperation he wants on European defense spending and sanctions on Iran. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently told CNBC, the U.S. cable news network, that President Trump would factor military contributions to NATO into the application of a 25 percent tax on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum. "



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