Investing.com - Market sentiment this week was dominated by talk surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump's planned tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which raised fears over a full-fledged global trade war.
Trump is expected to sign an order to impose imports tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum during a ceremony scheduled for 3:30PM ET (2030 GMT) Thursday.
Such a move aims to counter cheap imports, especially from China, that Trump says undermine U.S. industry and jobs.
The proclamation signing would cap a tumultuous week in the White House, where advisers have been sparring over the direction of U.S. trade policy, with the tariffs handing a victory to the nationalist wing led by adviser Peter Navarro and playing a part in Tuesday’s resignation of Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council.
Fears of the first full-scale tariff war since the 1930s have been raised by the head of the World Trade Organization, who in a direct warning to Trump said that his proposed tariffs will trigger a domino effect that will lead to global recession.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said his country will respond as necessary in the event of a trade war with the United States, while warning that such a war would only harm all sides.
Trump addressed trade with China in tweets on Wednesday, demanding that it lay out plans for reducing its trade surplus with the U.S. by $1 billion.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s top trade official mentioned cranberries, orange juice and peanut butter as possible targets as the EU prepares to strike back against Trump's measures.
EU officials had previously flagged Kentucky bourbon, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Levi’s jeans among the products they have in their sights for retaliatory tariffs.
That came after Trump threatened in a tweet to impose tariffs on European automakers.
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