Trump Allies Dash to Avert Possible Trade Wars

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Donald Trump has suggested he's itching for a trade war — and a trade war he may get. Just not the one he might have meant.

The European Union has drawn up plans to apply a tit-for-tat levy on $3.5 billion worth of U.S. imports should Trump implement plans to impose stiff tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.

According to a European Commission document obtained by Viktoria Dendrinou and Jonathan Stearns, targeted products include:

• shirts, jeans, cosmetics and other consumer goods
• motorbikes and pleasure boats
• orange juice, bourbon, corn and other agricultural products
• steel and other industrial products

While Trump's tariff plan has angered allies, the response from China — whose U.S. trade surplus dwarfs all others — has been muted, in part because the country sells relatively little steel to the U.S.

With Trump's move increasingly looking like a potential misfire, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn and House Speaker Paul Ryan are leading last-ditch efforts to persuade the president to change course.

Cohn is summoning executives from U.S. companies that depend on the metals to meet this week with Trump to try to persuade him to blunt or halt the tariffs. How the president will respond is anyone's guess.

Global Headlines

Just in … North Korea and South Korea agree to hold a summit in April, South Korean special envoy Chung Eui-yong tells reporters in Seoul after returning from Pyongyang.

Midterms get under way | Balloting in Texas today opens a nominating season to choose party candidates that extends through September and will help determine control of Congress for the final two years of Trump's first term. Voters will be sending an early signal of whether the president will be a bigger motivator for Democrats than Republicans. Democrats are gunning for a House majority in November. 

Italy's conundrum | The votes are counted in Italy's historic election, but rather than offering answers to deep-seated economic problems, the outcome raises fundamental political questions. Luigi Di Maio placed first with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, yet as John Follain reports, converting that victory into a governing majority is a puzzle with no obvious solution. Click here for the final edition of our Italian elections newsletter.

South China Sea shift | This week's visit by a U.S. aircraft carrier to Vietnam — the first since the war — marks a milestone between the former enemies as Vietnam tussles with its much bigger Communist neighbor China over disputed areas of the South China Sea. While Vietnam is heavily reliant economically on Beijing, its defense relations with the U.S. have blossomed even as the Philippines, a long-time American ally, moves increasingly closer to China.

Nigeria's woes | A new day, a new crisis for Muhammadu Buhari, president of Africa's most populous nation. The latest setback came on March 1 when suspected Islamist militants killed three United Nations workers and eight soldiers, two weeks after more than 100 schoolgirls were kidnapped in the same region. The attacks along with gasoline shortages and worsening communal violence are heaping pressure on the 75-year-old former military ruler as he decides whether to seek re-election next year.

Brazil's political matchmaking | Potential presidential candidates and lawmakers in Latin America's largest nation on Thursday start a month-long hunt — for political parties with plenty of cash, TV time and a cleanish record on corruption. Since Brazilian law bans independent candidates, they're looking for political organizations they hope will propel them to office in October.

And finally ... U.K. detectives are investigating the sudden collapse of a former Russian military intelligence officer who passed secrets to Britain's MI6 before he was jailed and expelled by Moscow as part of the biggest spy swap since the Cold War. With Sergei Skripal critically ill in the hospital, there's already speculation he was targeted by Russia, amid echoes of the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. The Kremlin says it doesn't know what happened.

--With assistance from Anthony Halpin

To contact the author of this story: Kathleen Hunter in London at khunter9@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Caroline Alexander

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