US companies welcoming the fight for trade

Focus on the US grocery store, and the shelves are equipped with jars with Strawberry Running by St. Dalfour and Bon Maman's Raspberry – some of the more than $ 200 million (£ 154 million) in jams that Europe sends to America every year.

But try to look for American jelly in Europe and you will probably come up briefly.

The United States exports less than $ 300,000 for sweet each year in the block.

It is an imbalance that US company JM Smucker, one of the largest sellers of such products in America, blames 24%import tax Its fruits spread a face in the EU.

“The US exports' mini -export value is due entirely to the high EU tariff,” the company wrote in a letter to the White House this month, asking the Trump administration to deal with the problem as it prepares to collect “reciprocal” rates for the largest trading partners in America.

“Reciprocal US jams and EU jellies would serve to equalize play conditions,” the company said, noting that the highest traffic jams in the United States are currently only 4.5%.

Globally, Trump's impetus to unleash the tariffs against nearby trading partners – many of which have average rates of America -like, anger and danger, while attracting warnings from economists for higher prices and other potential economic pain.

Some businesses in the United States are repeating these concerns, but Trump's calls for tariffs also direct long -standing frustrations that many companies experience in terms of foreign competition and the policies they face abroad.

Smucker's letter was one of the hundreds presented in the White House, striving to influence the next set of tariffs that are expected to be discovered on April 2.

Apple farmers have increased the major discrepancy in imported duties that face their fronts in countries such as India (50%), Thailand (40%) and Brazil (10%), as well as sanitary rules in countries such as Australia, they said they unfairly block their exports.

Business streaming marks digital taxes in Canada and Turkey, which they said “are” unfairly directed and discriminated against “by US companies.

The oil and natural gas lobby criticized Regulations in Mexico that require partnership with the state -owned oil company and other policies.

The White House itself noticed uneven ethanol tariffs in Brazil (18%, compared to 2.5% in the United States), car rates in Europe (10%, compared to 2.5% in the US) and motorcycles in India (until a few years ago, 100% against 2.4% in the US).

Trump suggested that his plan for reciprocal tariffs would help to eliminate such complaints, pumping his message as a “Liberation Day”.

But even businesses seeking actions on their own issues expressed hesitation about the President's tariffs, the strategy of later-forgies that risk revenge and a wider trade war.

On April 2, the onset remains widespread uncertainty about the goals and scope of White House plans, especially since Trump has fulfilled a wide part of other obligations.

“We will be nice,” he said this week, at the same time when he announced potentially devastating tariffs for foreign cars and car parts. “I think people will be pleasantly surprised.”

India has already stated that it will reduce its motorcycle rates – an obvious bet that Trump's tariffs are a strategy designed to acquire leverage for commercial conversations.

But analysts have warned that those who hope that Trump plans to use his reciprocal tariffs to negotiate changes elsewhere may be disappointed as the president also indicated that he could be satisfied by simply hitting back.

“Some days it's about revenge and just equalizing things and other days it's about reducing tariffs, and then other days, third days, it's about bringing production in the United States,” says William Readsh, a senior councilor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington Thinktank.

“He used them all at different times – there is no topic here you can count on.”

The discrepancy between the dumb tariff tool and the more common problems that companies want that the White House has led to a delicate dance, as businesses suggest tariffs in their interest, while hoping to avoid the consequences of the type of duties that Trump suggests that it can be on the table.

For example, steel manufacturer Northstar Bluescope Steel, which employs 700 people in American steel of recycled metal, called on Trump to expand the tariffs on steel and aluminum in parts.

At the same time, however, he requested the release of raw materials, such as scrap metal.

In the same way, the lobbying group for JM Smucker and other large food manufacturers, the Consumer Association, warned of “too wide and soft tariffs” that can make it more expensive for its members to bring ingredients such as cocoa that is not made in the US.

“It is not necessary for the current administration to say: Well, we will impose a tariff,” said Tom Maderski, Vice President of the Supply Resistance Group, a recent tariff forum hosts free trade farmers.

“It is this careful balance between yes, I want you to take the first trade policy and actions of America to oppose unfair commercial policies abroad … But maybe not quite that way.”

Wilber Ross, who was Trump's secretary for trading in his first term, said he believed that business concerns would be distracted as Trump's plans become clear and call April 2 a “big step”.

But he noted that the president saw a little disadvantage of tariff use by considering them either as a source of new revenue or a way to reduce imports and promote more production.

“He's very dedicated,” he said. “People had to know that something like that was coming because he was talking about it for many, many years.”

Republicans, traditionally the trading party, remained in support of Trump's strategy, even when tariff messages were accused of recent sale and weakness of the stock market in the latest studies of business and consumers.

At a recent hearing of the trade representative, Jody Arington, a Republican who represents Texas, admitted that there may be “some pain related to the front end”, but maintains Trump's focus on the question, will create opportunities for his constituents in the end.

“It just seems to me that it is non -American not to fight for our American manufacturers, manufacturers and workers to have a uniform game,” he said.

“We're just trying … to reset these relationships so that we play the same set of rules,” he added. “Then everyone wins.”