Global News Of Note: Several Countries Take On Trump Tariffs At WTO

What happens abroad impacts MSCI members in North America. Here is the latest economic, trade, and other policy news of note for the last week:

• India, Japan, and the United Kingdom (UK) have filed a motion with the World Trade Organization (WTO) to raise tariffs on certain U.S. products equivalent to the Trump administration’s duties on steel and aluminum. The three countries consider their motions to be “safeguard” measures. According to World Trade Online, the moves are largely procedural and do not indicate that any of the three plans to enact the tariff increases immediately. Soon after, the United States filed a motion with the WTO arguing Japan and the UK are improperly proposing to hit U.S. goods with tariffs in response to the Trump administration increasing the duties on steel and aluminum. Read more about that filing at this link.
• The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has initiated investigations to determine whether steel strapping originating in or exported from China, South Korea, Turkey, and Vietnam is being sold at unfair prices in Canada and whether steel strapping originating in or exported from China is being subsidized. The CBSA investigation comes after JEM Strapping Systems Inc., the only producer of steel strapping in Canada, filed a complaint. Read more at this link.
• Reuters reported China’s crude steel output fell seven percent from March 2025 to April 2025. Output growth was flat between April 2024 and April 2025. Overall, China produced 86.02 million metric tons of crude steel in April.