National Beer Wholesalers Association today said it was concerned about “unintended consequences” harming downstream U.S. industries, including brewers, distributors, retailers and consumers.
“The tariffs would amount to a hidden tax that would get paid out of the pockets of hardworking American employees who just want to have a cold beer at the end of a long day,” said Craig Purser, president.
Meanwhile, President Trump’s goal in his proposed 25% tariff on imported steel and 10% tariff on imported aluminum has become clearer. He said today that he would lift the tariffs on steel imports only if Mexico and Canada sign a new version of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed,” he tweeted.
The plan has caused a rift among Republicans, with top Republicans circulating a letter expressing “concerns about the prospect of broad, global tariffs on aluminum and steel imports.”
Will Trump’s tweet about NAFTA lead Canada and Mexico to make changes the U.S. wants, or will they have painted Canadian and Mexican leaders into a corner, leading them to resist the U.S. proposals? Only time will tell, but human nature – and politics – being what it is, we suspect it would have been better for that message to have been conveyed privately.
More on tariffs: The New York Times this morning told readers not to think about the announcement as being about a new tariff on steel and aluminum.
“Rather, think of it as a signal about the willingness of the president to ignore his most sober-minded advisers and put the global economy at risk to achieve his goal of better terms for American trade,” Neil Irwin wrote.
“The most consistent economic idea running through President Trump’s decades in public life has been a conviction that the United States is being duped in the global trade arena. He has denounced China, called for ripping apart the North American Free Trade Agreement, and accused generations of American trade negotiators of being incompetent,” he said.