Troy Stangarone

What can South Korea learn from Donald Trump’s initial tariff moves against Canada, Mexico and China? Potentially a good deal, especially considering the temporary pause in tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

First, the United States’ use of tariffs is no longer confined to disputes over trade, but rather the Trump administration also sees tariffs as a useful tool to achieve other policy objectives. Consider the case of the recent executive order calling for 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and the executive order calling for a 10 percent tariff on China.

The tariffs that Trump sought to impose on all three countries had nothing to do with trade, but were instead rooted in an earlier executive order declaring a national emergency with regard to illegal immigrants and drugs crossing the U.S. border. Without declaring a national emergency regarding illegal immigrants and drug trafficking, Trump would not have had the authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to place tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada.

The new tariffs targeted China’s failure to crack down on the fentanyl precursors that end up in North America and are processed into the synthetic opioid fentanyl that cross the border into the United States primarily from Mexico, but to a lesser extent........

© The Korea Times