Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs to cost US jobs: Research

Washington: US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum would cost the US nearly 146,000 jobs, according to a latest research by the Trade Partnership, a Washington-based consulting firm.

Trump announced March 1 that the United States planned to impose 25 percent of tariff on steel imports and 10 percent for aluminum, as these imports threaten the US national security, Xinhua reported.

“The tariffs would increase US iron and steel employment and non-ferrous metals (primarily aluminum) employment by 33,464 jobs, but cost 179,334 jobs throughout the rest of the economy, for a net loss of nearly 146,000 jobs,” said the research.

“More than five jobs would be lost for every one gained,” said Joseph Francois and Laura Baughman who co-authored the research.

Services sectors will be hit the hardest, the research found. Consumers are likely to reduce spending when they are hit by higher costs and lost wages from unemployment.

Negative impacts “would ripple through the economy,” warned the research.

Moreover, the research didn’t take into account any potential retaliation against US exports, signalling the real impacts are likely to be much larger.

The European Commission is preparing punitive tariffs on U.S. exports from motorcycles to Kentucky bourbon, according to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

–IANS