President Trump is back with another unexpected and unspecific tariff announcement.
Trump will restore steel and aluminum tariffs on Brazil and Argentina because the countries "have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies," he said in a Monday tweet. This "is not good for our farmers," Trump said, while also pushing the Federal Reserve to "likewise act" so other countries can "no longer take advantage of our strong dollar."
The unexpected announcement mirrors Trump's previous spur-of-the-moment tariff revelations, seeing as it came with no explanation of when and how the tariffs would roll out. Steel is Brazil's second-largest export to the U.S. after crude oil, with $2.25 billion in steel sent out from January to October this year, Bloomberg notes via Brazilian data.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro declined to comment on the announcement until he talked to his economic minister. But "if needed, I can also talk to Trump, I have an open channel with him," Bolsonaro told reporters Monday morning.
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliablespeed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutinySpeed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
