E.U. and Canada retaliated after Trump’s latest tariffs
The trade fight widened yesterday as the E.U. and Canada announced billions of dollars in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports, hours after President Trump’s levies on steel and aluminum imports took effect.
Europe
The E.U. said that tariffs would take effect on April 1, a response to about $26 billion in tariffs applied by the U.S. But bloc officials emphasized that they were ready to strike a deal.
Their response will come in two parts. A tariff suspension implemented under President Joe Biden will be allowed to lapse, raising tariffs on billions of euros’ worth of products that include boats, bourbon and motorcycles. The second step will be to place tariffs on about 18 billion euros’ worth of additional products, a list of which has yet to be finalized.
Canada
The Canadian government said that it would impose new tariffs on $20 billion worth of U.S. imports. This round is centered on steel and aluminum but also applies to tools, computers, sporting goods and cast iron.
Here’s a breakdown of all the tariffs so far.
Other allies
Britain has chosen not to retaliate, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks to sign a long-term trade deal with the U.S. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia said his country would not impose reciprocal tariffs because they would hurt domestic consumers.
Activist held by U.S. hasn’t spoken privately with lawyers
Lawyers for a pro-Palestinian activist and legal U.S. resident who was detained by federal immigration authorities last weekend have been unable to hold private conversations with him, a court hearing revealed yesterday. The Trump administration is trying to deport the activist, Mahmoud Khalil, who has not been charged with a crime.
Khalil, who is married to an American citizen, has been a leader of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, from which he recently graduated. The Trump administration has justified his detention with a little-used statute that allows deportation proceedings against people whose presence is deemed “adversarial” to U.S. foreign policy. Trump said this week that Khalil’s case was the first of “many to come.”
Quote: “This is not about free speech,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. “This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card.”
What’s next: The judge said that he would order the government to let Khalil’s lawyers speak with him. He also told a government lawyer to be prepared to address a 2004 Supreme Court opinion that could allow Khalil’s lawyers to keep his case in New York.
More on Trump
Tracking sectarian violence and revenge killings in Syria
Armed groups and foreign fighters linked to the Syrian government were behind the sectarian violence in the coastal region over the past week, a war monitoring group based in Britain found. The tensions have threatened efforts to unify the country.
The violence “included extrajudicial killings, field executions and systematic mass killings motivated by revenge and sectarianism,” the Syrian Network for Human Rights said in a report released on Tuesday. The Times could not confirm the findings.
Background: Hundreds of civilians were killed in Latakia and Tartus provinces, areas dominated by the Alawite religious minority. The ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad was an Alawite, and some fellow members enjoyed privileged status under his rule.
Conflict: Turkey kept bombing armed Kurdish insurgents in Iraq and Syria, even after the militants’ leader urged them to disband and their group declared a cease-fire.
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A sea of new books to read this spring
Every season brings its share of books to look forward to, and this one is no different. The Times has picked dozens of its favorite page turners for you.
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