| TARIFFS: The U.S. decision Thursday to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico and the European Union sparked swift rebukes from trading partners, lawmakers, businesses and economists who predicted “trade wars” and rising consumer costs for thousands of products, according to The Hill’s Vicki Needham and Niv Elis. The president, however, has been telling his advisers and everyone else for months that “reciprocal” trade is fair trade, believing that U.S. tariffs could force concessions and rebalance the equation where gaps with the United States exist. 
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Following a crescendo of global criticism, the president late Thursday dispatched this statement, aimed at Canada:
“The United States has been taken advantage of for many decades on trade. Those days are over. Earlier today, this message was conveyed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada: The United State will agree to a fair deal, or there will be no deal at all.” The arguments in a nutshell:
“[S]teel and aluminum tariffs have already had major, positive effects on steel and aluminum workers and jobs and will continue to do so long into the future.” — White House statement.
“Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are a tax hike on Americans and will have damaging consequences for consumers, manufacturers and workers.” — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), in a statement.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) joined Hatch and other leading Republicans in assailing the administration’s decision as wrong for jobs and for consumers. “Instead of addressing the real problems in the international trade of these products, [the] action targets American allies [instead of] the unfair trading practices of countries like China,” he said in a statement.
Reactions from allies
U.S. trading partners pledged immediate retaliation and complained about mistreatment by the Trump administration after months spent in negotiations to try to avert a clash.
The Hill: Mexico’s response? New duties to be imposed on steel products, lamps, pork, sausages and food preparations, apples, grapes, blueberries, and cheeses, to name a few.
The Hill: The European Union’s reaction? Equivalent retaliatory tariffs on goods to the United States.
© Screenshot/Twitter The Globe and Mail: Canada is the largest supplier of steel and aluminum to the United States; its retaliation plan will slap tariffs on $16.6 billion worth of the two metals, as well as other products going to the U.S. market. The confrontation heightens tensions ahead of this month’s summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations, to take place in Charlevoix, Quebec, Canada in a week.
© Screenshot/Twitter Market reactions
Bloomberg: Any optimism investors might have had about the economic outlook was quickly dashed when the Trump administration announced it was imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from the European Union, Canada and Mexico.
What next?
Trump’s tariffs decision hit the headlines as he swung through Texas during a series of political fundraisers in Houston and Dallas. The Dallas Morning News reported that Texas would feel the brunt of the steel and aluminum tariffs more than any other state.
Some Texas Republicans, including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, said the administration’s policy placed “American workers and families at risk.”
**** INTERNATIONAL: North Korea: Diplomacy is not easy or swift, and Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo conceded as much while talking about North Korea on Thursday. The focus since March on one summit between two leaders has become a series of meetings, a flurry of envoys, and a letter of reply from Kim Jong Un to the president, to be delivered today at the White House.
The Hill: Trump awaits a letter from the North Korean leader as an on-again, off-again June 12 summit remains in limbo. “I look forward to seeing what’s in the letter,” Trump told reporters.
The Hill: Still hopeful for a historic summit, the president also downplayed expectations. “It doesn’t mean it gets all done at one meeting. Maybe you have to have a second or a third. And maybe we’ll have none,” the president said.
© Screenshot/Twitter Pompeo, who spent two days with North Korean senior official Kim Yong Chol in New York, described “real progress,” and told reporters, “This is going to be a process that will take days and weeks to work our way through.”
North Korea’s visit to the White House today is the first by a high-level official from that country since 2000, when Jo Myong Rok, then a senior official, met former President Bill Clinton, according to Reuters. | 
