The Trump administration is considering new limits on imported steel and aluminum, hoping to provide an economic stimulus to domestic metal manufacturing. Now U.S. trade partners are warning that trademark American products, like bourbon, cheese, and orange juice, could face higher tariffs in retaliation.
Under the new proposal, steel tariffs would reach at least 24 percent, causing imports to drop by a third. The effect of those tariffs could be felt by European and Latin American countries. Those countries would be the ones considering tariffs on imported U.S. food products.
Kentucky bourbon, Wisconsin cheese, and Florida orange juice aren’t the biggest U.S. food exports. But what they have in common is their home states’ political importance. Kentucky is the home state of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Wisconsin is home to House Speaker Paul Ryan. And Florida is a perennial swing state. “One of the things this whole era of increasing trade friction has shown us is our trading partners are learning a lot more about our electoral college,” Rufus Yerxa, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, told NPR.