White House Director of the National Trade Council, Peter Navarro commented on Trumps’ tariffs on Sunday:
- Exemptions and exclusions are different
- “There’ll be an exemption procedure for particular cases where you need to have exemptions so that business can move forward.”
- ” At this point in time, there’ll be no country exclusions.”
- “As soon as he (Trump) starts exempting countries, he has to raise the tariff on everybody else.”
- “As soon as he exempts one country, his phone starts ringing with the heads of state of other countries.”
Trump is expected to formally sign an order for the 25% tariff on steel and 10% on aluminum this week.
Italy election: No clear winner, Euro steady
In Italy, based on the early vote counts, there will be no clear winner in the election. Center-right coalition of former Primer Minister Silvio Berlusconi is heading for a win in the election, but falls short of a majority. That means, it will take weeks of negotiations before a government could be formed. Anti-establishment Five Star movements to come in second place. Center-left coalition by the governing Democratic Party will come in third.
Euro has little reaction and is steady.