U.S. Republican lawmakers slam Trump's steel, aluminum tariffs

WASHINGTON, May 31 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican lawmakers on Thursday slammed the Trump administration' s latest decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union (EU), Canada and Mexico.

"This action puts American workers and families at risk, whose jobs depend on fairly traded products from these important trading partners," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said in a statement.

"The Administration will need to come to Capitol Hill to provide answers about the indiscriminate harm these tariffs are causing our local businesses," he argued, blaming the Trump administration over its onerous product exclusion process from the steel and aluminum tariffs.

"In the meantime, the product exclusion process just isn't working. I ask that the Administration step up its effort to greatly improve the product exclusion process to help American manufacturers," he said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said he will continue to push the administration to change course on the steel and aluminum tariffs.

"My position remains unchanged: Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are a tax hike on Americans and will have damaging consequences for consumers, manufacturers and workers," Hatch said in a statement.

"We should build on our success in overhauling the nation's tax code with complementary trade policies that, rather than favoring one narrow industry, make all sectors of the U.S. economy more competitive," he argued.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse from the state of Nebraska called the tariffs "dumb" and warned that tariffs in the 1920s led to the Great Depression.

"Blanket protectionism is a big part of why America had a Great Depression. 'Make America Great Again' shouldn' t mean 'Make America 1929 Again,'" he said in a statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump has decided not to extend the temporary steel and aluminum tariff exemptions for the EU, Canada and Mexico, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Thursday, adding those tariffs will take effect from Friday.

The Trump administration is using the so-called Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act from 1962, a decades-old law, to slap tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products on the ground of national security, which has drawn strong opposition from the domestic business community and U.S. trading partners. Enditem