The decision, obviously, is his. As soon as you exempt one country, then you have to exempt another country and so it’s a slippery slope,” he said on CNN’s "State of the Union.”"As soon as you start exempting countries you have to raise the tariffs on everybody else. They have been talking with others.”In a subsequent interview on NBC’s "Meet the Press,” Ross allowed for the possibility that Trump may yet change his mind, as he has on other issues. We’ll see.

Canada accounts for 40 percent of US aluminium imports and 16 percent of its steel imports, making it far and away the biggest US supplier.”An official English-language interpreter added the phrase, "and will take necessary measures. They flood the world market with this product and that ripples down to our shores and to other countries,” he said.British Prime Minister Theresa May said she raised her "deep concern” over the tariffs in a phone call with Trump on Sunday, her office said.In Beijing, the spokesman for the National People’s Congress warned that "policies informed by misjudgement or wrong perceptions will hurt relations and bring consequences no side wants to see."We shall see.

The bigger picture here is that China has tremendous overcapacity in both aluminum and steel. Well, in our sized economy, that’s a tiny, tiny fraction of one percent. Trump ignited fears of a trade war and an outcry from US trading partners this week when he abruptly announced blanket 25 per cent tariffs on imported steel and 10 per cent on aluminium.”Read also: 'No exclusions' for countries from Trump tariffs: US officialPeter Navarro, a top White House trade advisor, said the administration would consider exemptions on a case-by-case basis but "no country exclusions. They have been talking with me. But as of the moment, as far as I know, he’s talking about a fairly broad brush. So while it might affect an individual producer for a little while, overall it’s not going to be much more than a rounding error,” he said. The president makes the decisions,” he said.

Ross, who said he expected them to go into effect in the coming week, played down the impact on the US economy of retaliatory measures."So, the notion that it would destroy a lot of jobs, raise prices, disrupt things, is wrong,” he said. We shall see.Trump ignited fears of a trade war and an outcry from US trading partners this week when he abruptly announced blanket 25 per cent tariffs on imported steel and 10 per cent on aluminium.The European Union has said it is drawing up measures against leading US brands like Harley-Davidson and Levi’s jeans, while China warned it "won’t sit idly by” if its interests are hurt.But Navarro contends that China was "the root of the problem” despite being a relatively small player in the US steel and aluminium market.”National security rationaleTrump invoked national security as the rationale for imposing the tariffs, without making any distinction between friendly suppliers like Canada and potential adversaries like China or Russia.

The move has been highly controversial among Republicans and within the administration, but Trump on Friday tweeted that "trade wars are good, and easy to win.”. It’s some USD 3 billion of goods that the Europeans have threatened to put something on. "But if the US takes actions that hurt Chinese interests, China will not sit idly by. I know a lot of ministers from a lot of countries have been talking with the president.Read also: EU targets Levi's, bourbon, Harley Davidson to counter Trump trade warCanada, which has the most to lose as the top source of US steel and aluminium imports, has called the tariffs "unacceptable.”"I know he’s had conversations with a number of the world leaders,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on ABC’s "This Week.A ‘rounding error’"As to the idea of retaliation, sure there may well be some sort of retaliation, but the amounts that they’re talking about are also pretty trivial.”Read also: Will 'take necessary measures' if US harms trade, says China"China doesn’t want a trade war with the United States,” Zhang told a news conference

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