020 7898 0500Yesterday Donald Trump sent a Tweet which alluded to a meeting at 8:30pm UK time.The world drew a breath and waited for news of what the outcome of the meeting was. We learned that Trump has gone ahead with his plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. He did say that exceptions would be made, although it is not clear at the moment what countries will have to do to be exempt.
Somewhat bizarrely, he said ““Steel is steel. Without steel you don’t have a country.” He was flanked by workers from both industries and, perhaps tellingly, no congressional members of the Republican party were present as he made the announcement. We know that Canada and Mexico are exempted from the tariffs, but that is all we know. This could lead to a trade war and is certainly a situation to watch closely.
Today is a busy one for the US, with February’s non-farm payrolls set for release. We will also see the unemployment rate, as well as the manufacturing payrolls. Non-farm payrolls smashed forecast last time in what was some extremely positive news for the US workforce and it will be fascinating to see if this trend continues. The figure is expected to dip to 192,000 from 200,000 the month before.
