President Trump has long talked of correcting trade imbalances with China and the US and on Friday the Trump administration moved forward with keeping that promise.

On Friday March 9, 2018, the Trump administration announced that the US is calling for tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. This is due to what the Trump administration is calling unfair trade practices by China. The Trump administration says that the tariffs are due to the way China handles intellectual property rights siting that China treats US companies unfairly forcing them to hand over intellectual property rights in order to do business in mainland China amongst other complaints about the state-run market in China. In response to the steel and aluminum tariffs, China’s steel and metals associations urged the Chinese government to retaliate against the United States, citing imports ranging from stainless steel to coal, agricultural products. With the recent win in China for reduction of tariffs on pecan imports to China, the US pecan industry does not want to see the tariff on pecans in China reversed. The tariffs on steel and aluminum are set to start in less than two weeks; but most reports state that negotiations are still open.