Proposed U.S. Steel Tariffs could come this Week
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, I have coast to coast across the United States and to our viewers around the world this hour, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm George Howell.</s>ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And I'm Rosemary Church. We want to update you now on the main stories we've been following this hour. A high level South Korean delegation has lift the North Korea. It includes South Korea's national security chief and they might discuss direct dialogue between the U.S. and Pyongyang. President Trump said Saturday North Korea wanted to talk but it would have to abandon its nuclear weapons first.</s>HOWELL: The "Shape of Water" cleaned up at the Oscars. Guillermo del Toro's fantasy love story took home four awards, including best picture and director. The Academy Award show also highlighted diversity by spotlighting groups fighting for the rights of women and minorities.</s>CHURCH: A U.S. navy aircraft carrier is making a historic visit to Vietnam. It's also seen as a message to China. The "USS Vinson" is anchored off Danang, a key battleground during the war that ended in 1975. Analysts say the carrier is meant to send a not so subtle signal to Beijing about its aggressive island building in the South China Sea. Well, it will be a crucial week for President Trump's proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum. The White House says the president could sign the controversial measure in a matter of days.</s>HOWELL: On Sunday, President Trump wrote this on Twitter. "We are on the losing side of almost all trade deals. Our friends and enemies have taken advantage of the United States for many years. Our steel and aluminum industries are dead. Sorry, it's time for a change. Make America great again." Our Jake Tapper asked a White House trade adviser for clarification on these proposed tariffs. Let's listen.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: So there's going to be no exemptions. That's what it's going to look like at the end of the week.</s>PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL TRADE COUNCIL DIRECTOR: There's a difference between exemptions and country exclusions. There will be an exemption procedure for particular cases where we need to have exemptions so that business can move forward. But at this point in time, there will be no country exclusions.</s>HOWELL: Let's bring in Scott Lucas. Scott, a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, also the founder of E.A. WorldView live with us in Birmingham this hour. Scott, thanks for your time today. Let's talk about this White House. It blames China mainly for flooding the world market with aluminum and steel as reasons behind these tariffs. But let's put the facts first, as well. It's countries like Canada and South Korea that the United States imports most of its steel. So the question, why does China remain the boogeyman here and how much of this plays into the president's campaign promises to get tougher on China and what he perceives as trade imbalances?</s>SCOTT LUCAS, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: Well, you know, it's because people may not know the details. So when Donald Trump presents it, you go for the boogeyman, you go for the country who he said during campaign was raping the United States by taking advantage of our economy. But of course, there's a paradox beyond the tariffs. The fact is that even as China might be held up wrongly as being the major problem about steel. Donald Trump was praising the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping saying it's great he's president for life. Maybe I should do the same this past weekend. So we're muddled politically and then economically to get back to your core point. The countries that are most affected by this are American allies. That is, Canada, Japan, the countries of the European Union, Brazil. They're the ones that are already threatening retaliation. And then on top of that, when you bring it back home, if you're listening to what Peter Navarro said yesterday, it's total confusion about what happens domestically. These companies that are going to be affected by the price of increased steels and those products -- do you before you implement go through industry by industry, company by country -- company by company one by one to agree exceptions? Do you just implement this and then have them apply for an exception? So right now, I think we're going to talk about the tough for it, which is it's easy to shout about steel and shout about China. Now, when it comes to implementing tariffs, then you've got to govern, and that's going to be tricky.</s>HOWELL: And as you point out, the devil in the details. We do expect to get some clarification as the president makes a clear -- move forward on this in the week ahead. Let's also talk, Scott, about diplomacy that we're seeing play out between North Korea, South Korea and what the president says was a phone call that he received from North Korea. He said the U.S. is open to talks. He said this to them. That they have to de-nuke. North Korea has responded saying that any idea that it would be nuclearize is, "ridiculous." So the question here is, is the door really open for any progress from what you see?</s>LUCAS: Look, if Donald Trump received that phone call, my name is Kim Jong-un, let's start from the reality of what's happening here. U.S. officials are probably involved behind the scenes, but the main players in terms of the talks have been the two Koreas with China trying to bring them together. Now, that is a process that Donald Trump has unsettled in the past by threatening military action. It's now the diplomatic track. And that's probably a good thing. But here's the second cold dose of reality. You cannot start the talks as Trump is doing by demanding that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons. That day has gone. You can try to limit North Korea's nuclear weapons capability. You can try to bring it into a range of agreements but you're not going to go back to the 1990s when we had the framework agreement where at that point, they had not developed nuclear weapons. It's not going to happen. So I think, let's set Trump's bluster aside, look very carefully at the talks, see if the two Koreas get together on the table without preconditions. And that will be the real sign that we got some progress if that happens.</s>HOWELL: All right. Scott Lucas giving your perspective there. Live for us in Birmingham. Thank you for your time today.</s>CHURCH: And we'll take a very short break here. But still to come, Syria says it's gaining ground in Eastern Ghouta. A live report for you from the region. That story we have it next.