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Article snippet: The Trump administration is expected to hit the European Union with steep tariffs on steel and aluminum, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. EU trade officials have spent the past couple of months trying to work out an agreement to stave off the tariffs and earn the 28-nation bloc an exemption. But those efforts appear to have failed with the U.S. planning to slap the hefty tariffs on a key ally. In March, MORE announced that the United States would levy tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum for national security reasons. The White House extended until Friday the time for several nations, including the EU, Argentina and Brazil, to reach deals on their steel and aluminum imports before getting hit by the tariffs. The deadline for the temporary exemption ends on Friday. Commerce Secretary MORE delivered a harsh message during the annual OECD trade forum in Paris on Wednesday, saying negotiations can continue even with the tariffs in place. "There can be negotiations with or without tariffs, it’s not that you can’t talk with tariffs,” Ross said, the Financial Times reported. “China is an interesting case in point. They are paying the tariffs, they came into effect in March and they haven't used this as an excuse not to talk. It’s only the EU insisting we can’t negotiate if there are tariffs." French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel each lobbied Trump for a waiver during recent trips to the Whi... Link to the full article to read more