Chile’s largest steel plant shut down last year, yielding to cheaper production in China. Now, six months later, the tariffs that President Donald Trump has imposed on US imports of the metal threaten the livelihood of 1.4 million workers in Latin America.As he did during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, Trump is trying to protect American producers by making steel imports costlier with a 25 percent tariff that kicked in on March 12.The United States imports 25 million tons of steel each year, and Canada is it main supplier, followed by Brazil and Mexico, each with products tailored to other industries like car manufacturing and construction.The United States relies on Latin America for specialized steel products, said Ezequiel Tavernelli, head of the Latin American Steel Association, Alacero.With the world awash steel production overcapacity, and China the main offender, the Trump tariffs will distort the market.”The only thing they will bring is a flood of steel” that had been headed to the United States and is now rerouted to regions that are less protected and have less ability to defend themselves, like Latin America, said Tavernelli.To explain the threat he gives these figures: in 2000 China exported less than 100,000 tons of steel a year to Latin America, but today it is more than 14 million tons. The growth is exponential.Steel production in Latin America has been falling for three years. And the Chinese share of what is consumed is getting bigger and bigger .And now, due to the Trump tariffs Latin American producers will not only lose market share in the United States but also miss out in some markets of their own region due to Chinese competition.- When it rains it pours-The numbers are jarring. China accounts for more than 45 percent of the world’s steel production capacity and produces 140 million tons it does not need. It dumps this excess cheaply on the international market, says Alacero, which says China produces 23 percent of the world’s excess steel.”The main problem of our region, and that of the United States, is world steel overcapacity,” Tavernelli told AFP.And China behaves disloyally, he argued, by selling steel below cost thanks to government subsidies.In September of last year Chile endured what Tavernelli is talking about. Its Huachipato steelworks, the country’s largest, shut down its blast furnaces for good.With the smoke that drifted out of its chimneys went nearly 75 years of company history. Chinese steel was 40 percent cheaper and Huachipato simply could not compete.Alacero argues that regionalization of supply chains — for instance, US steel producers, car makers and construction companies buy Latin American steel — “is the best way to defend against disloyal business by China and countries of Southeast Asia.”As Brazil’s vice president Geraldo Alckmin, who is also the minister of development and industry, put it, the region’s goal should be to achieve “economic complementarity.” Brazil and Mexico are negotiating with the United States to try to win exemptions from the US tariffs, and managed to pull this off during Trump’s first term in power.In the same vein, Mexico’s iron and steel producers association, Canacero, said last month there is a high level of production integration between the US and Mexican steel industries and regional benefits should be the priority in the face of the threat of excess capacity of China and Southeast Asia.So there is the risk that more long-standing firms like Huachipato will have to shut down, said Tavernelli, who insisted the countries of Latin America have to work together.

Donald Trump loves few things more than talking about his affinity for tariffs, but it’s nothing new: he’s been saying the same thing for decades.”To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,'” Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail for the 2024 election.He has since joked that it is now his fourth favorite word, after love, God and family — but his commitment to them remains as strong as ever.The 78-year-old Republican has promised a “Liberation Day” for America on Wednesday when he announces sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs targeting any country that has import levies against US goods.The sudden trade war has sent leading world economies scrambling — yet anyone surprised by the onslaught has not been listening to Trump himself.Other policies have come and gone, especially on hot-button issues such as abortion, but Trump’s belief that America is being ripped off by the world has remained one of his core values.So has his innate conviction that tariffs are the solution, despite arguments by opponents and many economists that US consumers will suffer when importers pass on increased prices.- ‘Ripping off’ -“I am a Tariff Man,” Trump declared in a social media post back in 2018 during his first presidential term.In fact, Trump has been saying as much since the 1980s.His main target then was Japan, as Trump — best known in those days as a brash property dealer and tabloid fixture — discussed getting into politics in an interview with CNN’s Larry King.”A lot of people are tired of watching other countries ripping off the United States,” Trump said in 1987, using rhetoric that has changed little in the intervening 38 years. “Behind our backs, they laugh at us because of our own stupidity.”In a separate interview with chat show host Oprah Winfrey, he raged: “We let Japan come in and dump everything right into our markets.”By the 1990s and early 2000s, China entered his crosshairs, and Beijing remains one of his top tariff targets, along with Canada, Mexico and the European Union.In his successful 2016 election campaign, Trump stepped up the rhetoric, saying: “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country.” – ‘Very rich’ -During his second term, Trump has also started citing a historical precedent going back more than a century — President William McKinley.McKinley’s passion for both territorial expansion and economic protectionism during his time in office from 1897 to 1901 could have been the model for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” policies.”President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent — he was a natural businessman,” Trump said in his inauguration speech in January.Trump’s promises of a “Golden Age” harkens back to the so-called “Gilded Age” that culminated with McKinley’s presidency, a time when America’s population and economy exploded — along with the power of oligarchs.In addition to deploying tariffs, McKinley presided over a period of territorial adventurism for the United States, including the Spanish-American war and the purchases of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Such moves echo Trump’s own designs for Greenland, Panama and Canada.The two also share the unwanted similarity of being struck by an assassin’s bullet — although Trump survived the attempt on his life at an election rally last July, while McKinley was killed by an anarchist in 1901.

US President Donald Trump has made tariffs a cornerstone of his trade policy, insisting that they will revive American manufacturing while swelling government coffers.Critics argue that the levies will boost inflation in the near term and weigh on growth, triggering a trade war that could inflict serious damage on the United States and the wider global economy.Trump has imposed tariffs on major trading partners Canada, Mexico and China since returning to the presidency while slapping fresh duties on steel and aluminum imports, with more to come on what he dubbed “Liberation Day” this Wednesday.- What are tariffs? -Tariffs are fees that importing businesses pay for their purchases of foreign goods.When tariffs are imposed, companies must choose between forking out more for foreign goods — and potentially passing those costs on to consumers — or looking for alternatives.The levies bring in revenue for governments imposing them and are commonly used to protect local companies and workers from competition abroad.The charges can make domestic goods more cost-competitive, encouraging buyers to select local producers instead.- Arguments for -Trump’s position is that with tariffs on key imports, companies will move more manufacturing to the United States — or buy US-made products — to avoid additional fees.A commonly-used example is the “chicken tax” of the 1960s, when president Lyndon Johnson pushed back against European tariffs on American poultry with a levy on imported trucks.Today, a 25 percent US tariff remains on light trucks and this is a key reason that most pick-up trucks sold in the country are built in North America.The White House says new tariffs could also bring in more than $6 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade — about $600 billion per year — although it has yet to release its full plans.While US-based companies generally pay the tariffs, White House officials have argued that foreign sellers would absorb the hike by lowering their prices as they seek to do business with the world’s biggest economy.Supporters of Trump’s trade policy also say that tariffs did not cause widespread inflation during his first White House term.- Arguments against -But economists warn that tariff hikes can bring economic pain to affected sectors, and Trump’s stop-start approach to announcing levies has sent financial markets tumbling.If companies are unable to absorb additional fees and foreign sellers decline to lower their prices, the burden of tariffs could flow to other firms or consumers. Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on autos and parts could cause the price of a typical car to surge by $5,000 to $10,000, said Wedbush analysts.Even US automakers producing cars in the country use up to 50 percent of foreign auto parts, they said.”It would take three years to move 10 percent of the auto supply chain to the US and cost hundreds of billions with much complexity and disruption,” Wedbush added.Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic estimates that recent tariffs on Chinese goods, alongside steel and aluminum imports, would raise construction material prices by up to nine percent.Prices of appliances could also surge up to 15 percent, she said.Trump’s tariffs attract retaliation too, and countermeasures triggered more than $27 billion in US agricultural export losses from mid-2018 to late-2019.The Tax Foundation said: “Based on actual revenue collections data, trade war tariffs have directly increased tax collections by $200 to $300 annually per US household, on average.”These estimates do not account for “lower incomes as tariffs shrink output, nor the loss in consumer choice” as buyers seek tariff-free alternatives, it added.

Fearing a US immigration raid will separate her from her children, an undocumented Honduran immigrant hunkers down in her Washington home, anxiously scouring a WhatsApp group for real-time updates on nearby sweeps.Rosario, a 35-year-old mother of two, practically lives in hiding in the face of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping campaign to arrest and deport millions of undocumented immigrants since his return to the White House in January.Her only lifeline is a community group on the messaging app that provides news about immigration raids in Washington neighborhoods — often mixed with unverified or false information.”You stay informed and stay a little more alert thanks to the group,” Rosario told AFP in her studio apartment, festooned with birthday balloons, stuffed toys, and a wall hanging made from corn husk.”That way, you get rid of fear a little bit — but fear always persists,” said the part-time dishwasher, who crossed into the United States in 2021 after an arduous journey from her home country.Rosario, who refused to disclose her real name, peered through her window blinds for any lurking agents from ICE — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department, which has been deployed to carry out the Trump administration’s promise to target undocumented immigrants.”Alert: ICE activity was reported at a business center on (Mount) Pleasant around noon,” a message flashed in the group, adding that six masked agents were spotted in the Washington neighborhood and one person was detained.It was not possible for Rosario to ascertain whether the tip was real or fake.Still, she remained confident the community group, fed by other immigrants and advocates, provided reliable information — crucial for determining her limited movements to work and to purchase groceries.- ‘Scary climate’ -Rosario also puzzled over another morsel of unverified information in the group that had not appeared in the mainstream media: that an undocumented female immigrant was detained by ICE at a school in the Bethesda neighborhood.Immigration sweeps on educational institutions are rare, but the Trump administration has said it no longer considers sensitive locations such as schools, churches, and hospitals off-limits to agents. The policy has been legally challenged by religious organizations.Such uncertainty and fear have spawned a flurry of rumors about suspected immigration raids and movements of ICE agents that ricochet across messaging apps and online platforms, leaving immigrant communities on edge.In February, AFP’s fact-checkers debunked a viral online video that claimed to show an undocumented Colombian woman being expelled from the United States. In reality, it was a fictionalized clip posted in 2023 by an American YouTuber.Last month, another online video purportedly showed undocumented immigrants being arrested from a US barbershop. AFP found the video staged, with the uniforms worn by the supposed immigration officials appearing inauthentic.”In the current scary climate, it is hard to know what’s true, what’s inaccurate,” the director of an immigration advocacy group in Washington told AFP, requesting anonymity.The heightened fears among immigrant communities, he added, have made it harder to “decipher fact from fiction.”- ‘Fear grabs you’ –Despite an uptick in immigration arrests, authorities appear to be struggling to meet Trump’s mass deportation goals.The number of deportation flights since Trump took office on January 20 has been roughly the same as those in the final months of President Joe Biden’s administration, US media reported, citing data collected by an immigration rights advocate.That has done little to allay fears among the country’s estimated 14 million undocumented immigrants.Those concerns are aggravated by the government’s shock-and-awe tactics of publicizing raids in major cities and footage of shackled migrants being loaded onto deportation flights.Amid a lack of reliable information and fears of stepped-up raids, many undocumented immigrants have gone underground, with some even withdrawing their children from school, advocacy groups say.Many also remain vulnerable to exploitation by their employers.Elizabeth, an undocumented immigrant and mother of five, avoids the messaging groups filled with unverified information, choosing instead to stay vigilant and aware of her surroundings.”If you don’t know what is happening, fear grabs you,” she told AFP, declining to share her real name and country of origin.”Fear is a product of misinformation.”

President Donald Trump has revoked the licenses that allowed several transnational oil and gas companies to operate in Venezuela despite the country being under US sanctions.After US energy giant Chevron, Washington has ordered a handful of other energy firms, including Spain’s Repsol and France’s Maurel & Prom, to cease operating in Venezuela.Trump, who is seeking to force out authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, has also announced plans for 25 percent tariffs on imports from any country buying Venezuelan oil and gas.What’s next for the struggling Caribbean country, which has the world’s largest-known oil reserves but has become increasingly isolated since July 2024 elections that President Nicolas Maduro is accused of stealing?- Will the oil stop flowing? -In 2019, during his first term in office, Trump imposed an embargo on Venezuelan oil in response to 2018 elections that were already marred by fraud allegations.Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA oil giant was in freefall at the time, beset by corruption scandals, mismanagement and a crippling lack of investment. Oil output buckled under the weight of the sanctions, falling from around three million barrels per day at the start of the 2000s to below 400,000 b/d in 2020.The sector recovered some ground after former US president Joe Biden in 2022 eased the sanctions in return for a promise by Maduro to allow fair elections.Biden later reimposed most sanctions when it became clear that Maduro was not keeping his side of the bargain, but allowed Chevron to continue operations.Today, Venezuela produces around 900,000 barrels per day of which Chevron contributes about 220,000, Repsol about 60,000, and Maurel & Prom between 20,000 and 25,000.Washington has given Chevron and the other companies until May 27 to wind up their operations.”PDVSA …now has some operational capacity, although we don’t know how big it is,” Gilberto Morillo, PDVSA’s former financial manager told AFP.- Who will buy it? -Even if PDVSA manages to keep pumping oil, finding a way to monetize it “is another matter,” Morillo said, pointing to the threatened 25-percent US tariffs on countries that buy its crude.In February, Venezuela exported approximately 500,000 barrels per day to China, 240,000 to the United States, and 70,000 to India and Spain. In the past, sanctions forced PDVSA to discount the oil and to find partners to circumvent the sanctions.Caracas also attempted to trade crude oil through a cryptocurrency scheme, which ended with then oil minister Tareck El Aissami being jailed for corruption in a case that cost the country more than $15 billion, according to media reports.- What impact for the economy? -The situation looks set to pile further misery on an economy already in tatters.The price of dollars has soared on the black market as Venezuelans fear falling oil revenue will trigger another bout of hyperinflation and a return to the kind of deep recession the country experienced between 2014 and 2021.The forced pullout of gas producers could also have an impact on the country’s crumbling energy infrastructure, leading to more blackouts.Repsol pointed out that 85 percent of its operations in Venezuela were related to the production of natural gas, which it warned “supports part of the electricity network.”The cancellation of the licenses will prevent PDVSA from using oil to pay the foreign energy companies for gas, as it had been doing, Morillo explained.”If PDVSA can’t pay them, then it generates a debt,” he said.But if the energy firms decide “ok, we’ll close down and leave…they would lose their entire investment,” he argued.