American companies welcome the fight in commerce

Go to the grocery store in the US. And the shelves are supplied with strawberry spred and Bonne Maman Raspberry preserves jars, some of the more than $ 200 million (£ 154 million) in jams that Europe sends to the United States every year.

But try to look for an American manufacturing jelly in Europe, and it is likely to be short.

USA exports less than $ 300,000 in Jam each year to the block.

It is an imbalance that the American company JM Smucker, one of the largest sellers of said products in the United States, blames an import tax of 24% Its fruit extends the face in the EU.

“The tiny value of US exports to the European Union is completely attributable to the high EU tariff,” the company wrote in a letter to the White House this month, asking the Trump administration to address the problem while preparing to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on the largest commercial partners in the United States.

“The reciprocal rates of the USA. In Jams and Jellies of the EU they would serve to level the playing field,” said the company, and pointed out that the US Jam rate. UU. It is currently only 4.5%.

Worldwide, Trump’s impulse to display tariffs against nearby commercial partners, many of whom have average tariff levels similar to those of the United States, has generated anger and confusion, while attracting warnings of economists on higher prices and other potential economic pain.

Some companies in the USA have echoed those concerns, but Trump’s calls for rates are also channeling long -standing frustrations that many companies feel about foreign competition and the policies they face abroad.

Smucker’s letter was one of the hundreds subjected to the White House, which sought to influence the next set of rates, which is expected to occur on April 2.

Apple farmers increased the great disparity in import tariffs that their fruit faces in countries such as India (50%), Thailand (40%) and Brazil (10%), as well as sanitary rules in countries such as Australia, they said unfairly block their exports.

The transmission of companies marked digital taxes in Canada and Türkiye that they said that “they unjustly point out and discriminate” against US companies.

The oil and natural gas lobby criticized Regulations in Mexico that require association with the state oil company and other policies.

The White House itself highlighted the irregular ethanol rates in Brazil (18%, compared to 2.5% in the USA.), Automobile rates in Europe (10%, compared to 2.5% in the United States) and motorcycles in India (until a few years ago, 100% compared to 2.4% in the US. UU.).

Trump has suggested that his plan for reciprocal rates will help remedy such complaints, promoting his announcement as a “day of liberation.”

But even the companies that seek action on their own issues have expressed doubts about the feature rate strategy of the president first, issues -Questions-Later, which runs the risk of reprisals and a broader commercial war.

With April 2, there is a generalized uncertainty about the objectives and scope of the White House plans, especially when Trump launches a side of other tasks.

“We are going to be friendly,” he said this week, at the same time that he announced potentially devastating tariffs on cars and foreign cars pieces. “I think people will be pleasantly surprised.”

India has already said that it would reduce its tariffs on motorcycles: an apparent bet that Trump tariffs are a strategy designed to obtain influence for commercial conversations.

But analysts warned that those who expect Trump to plan to use their reciprocal tariffs to negotiate changes in other places may be disappointed, since the president has also indicated that he could be satisfied simply returning the return.

“Some days are revenge and simply match things and other days is about reducing tariffs and then other days, third days, it is about bringing manufacturing to the United States,” said William Reinsch, main advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington ThinkTank.

“Everyone has used them at different times: there is not a single thread here in which you can trust.”

The mismatch between the forceful tool of the tariffs and the problems of more niche that the companies want the White House to defend has led to a delicate dance, since the companies suggest tariffs in their own interest, while they hope to avoid the repercussions of the type of radical tasks that Trump has suggested that they could be on the table.

For example, the Northstar Bluescope Steel steel manufacturer, which uses 700 people in the melted steel of the United States of recycled metal, urged Trump to expand tariffs in steel and aluminum to the pieces.

At the same time, however, he requested an exemption to the raw materials he needs, such as scrap.

Similarly, the JM Smucker Lobby group and other large food manufacturers, the association of consumer brands, warned “too broad and radical rates” that could end up making it more expensive for its members to import ingredients such as cocoa, which are not performed in the United States.

“I do not necessarily want the current administration to say, well, we will impose a rate,” said Tom Motherki, vice president of the group’s supply chain, in a recent forum on fees, organized by farmers for free trade.

“It is this careful balance with each other, I want you to take a policy and commercial action of the United States to counteract unfair commercial policies abroad … but maybe not that way.”

Wilbur Ross, who served as Trump’s Secretary of Commerce in his first term, said he thought that commercial concerns would dissipate as Trump’s plans clarified, calling April 2 as a “big step.”

But he pointed out that the president saw little inconvenient in the use of rates, seeing them as a source of new income or a way of reducing imports and promoting more manufacturing.

“It’s very committed,” he said. “People should have known that something like this was approaching because they have been talking about that for many, many years.”

Republicans, traditionally the Pro-Trade party, have remained in the support of Trump’s strategy, even when they have blamed rates ads for the recent sale of the stock market and weakness in recent surveys of business and consumers confidence.

In a recent audience about El Comercio, representative Jodey Arrington, a Republican who represents Texas, acknowledged that there could be “certain associated pain in the front”, but maintained that Trump’s approach on the subject would create opportunities for its components at the end.

“It seems to me that it is not American not to fight for our American manufacturers, producers and workers to simply have a uniform playing field,” he said.

“We are simply trying … restoring those relationships in such a way that we are playing with the same set of rules,” he added. “Then everyone wins.”