President Donald Trump’s use of reciprocal tariffs has been used to achieve national security objectives far outside the scope of their economic veneer, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
According to internal government documents reviewed by the outlet, State Department officials considered urging U.S. trading partners to oppose reducing greenhouse gas emissions from global container ships. A draft "action memo" advised Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the issue was raised during trade talks with maritime nations like Singapore as the administration sought “to inject this issue into the ongoing bilateral trade negotiations.”
Following those discussions, administration officials considered expanding trade talks with over a dozen countries, earlier this spring proposing that Israel end a Chinese firm's port control and urging South Korea to publically back U.S. troop deployment against China and North Korea, according to the documents. Wendy Cutler, who spent more than a quarter century in the office of the U.S. trade representative said, “This is the first time I’ve seen that type of request in a trade agreement. When you’re sitting at the negotiating table, you’re not talking about this stuff.”
When the president paused reciprocal tariffs on April 9 for negotiations, officials developed plans to encourage countries near China to strengthen defense ties, which included considering the acquisition of U.S. equipment and arranging port visits. One State Department employee, who spoke to the outlet on the condition of anonymity said, “The document sent shock waves through the government. This isn’t normally how it works.”
In an executive order signed at the end of July, Trump noted that the tariffs would serve a dual purpose and repeatedly labelled the economic ramifications of a global trade imbalance a “threat.”
“I also have received additional information and recommendations on foreign relations, economic, and national security matters, including the status of trade negotiations, efforts to retaliate against the United States for its actions to address the emergency declared in Executive Order 14257, and efforts to align with the United States on economic and national security matters,” the order stated.
Phil Luck, director of the economics program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the national security considerations could be why most countries did not retaliate against the U.S. with their own tariffs on American goods. “They don’t think this is just an economic competition. They’re concerned we will escalate above that [and] pull out of NATO or change troop deployments,” said Luck, who served as the State Department’s deputy chief economist in the Biden administration.
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