Actions taken by the Trump administration continue to affect international trade. Adrienne Braumiller, Founder & Partner of Braumiller Law Group, helps the aerospace industry make sense of what’s going on.

Moves have included special duties on aluminium and steel, special duties on Chinese products, renegotiation or withdrawal from NAFTA, withdrawal from the Iran sanctions programme, and proposed new export controls on technology.

Where is this going?

Surplus

Braumiller said: “It’s very interesting because there are $51 billion in imports for the aerospace industry into the US. That was in 2017. If you look at that from an export perspective as well, there was actually an $86 billion surplus – so there’s a huge surplus in the aerospace industry.

“So unlike other industries, we don’t have a trade deficit.”

“It’s unfortunate, however, because these different special duties that are being placed on steel, aluminium, and also items from China – all of those will have an impact, as well as the US pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. Companies that were previously dealing in commercial airlines, like Boeing; they had planned sales of 110 aircraft to Iran – things like that have to be wound down and terminated,” she added.

Escalation

The strategies are backfiring in many cases, says Braumiller.

“Several US companies are saying: ‘You know what; we don’t want to necessarily manufacture here…we’re going to move our manufacturing to another country where those tariffs don’t apply. So it is backfiring.”

Braumiller  said she hoped things would shift and that the US and China would “put the brakes on this because it’s just escalating”.

However, in the latest round of tariffs kicking in, the US imposed tariffs on a further $200 billion ($152 billion) worth of Chinese products. China retaliated with tariffs on $60 billion of US goods.

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