White House Prepared To Use Tariffs To Encourage NATO Countries To Increase Their Financial Commitments To NATO

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a proclamation during a White House ceremony to establish tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis

Radio Free Europe: Trump Might Exempt NATO Allies From Tariffs If They Hike Military Spending

U.S. allies might be asked to increase their financial commitments to NATO to avoid new U.S. tariffs on their exports of steel and aluminum to the United States, the U.S. Treasury secretary has said.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC in an interview on March 9 that President Donald Trump will take national security into account in deciding which countries to exempt from the tariffs, and he noted that Trump wants to see NATO allies spend more on defense.

Mnuchin said Trump is specifically pushing to get NATO allies to spend the agreed goal of 2 percent of their gross domestic output on defense.

Read more ....

Update: US might tie NATO contributions to tariff exemptions (Defense News/AP)

WNU Editor: The EU is an integrated and heavily protected market. It will be very difficult fro the U.S. to raise tarifs on one country while exmpting others. But if implemented it would still cause a mess .... especially in Europe where they will be a scramble to minimize the impact of U.S. tariffs, while putting at risk their trade surpluses.