Trump’s decision to postpone tariffs on US allies applauded by ex-Sen. Lieberman

The Trump administration’s decision to postpone for 30 days the implementation of aluminum and steel tariffs on the European Union, Mexico and Canada was lauded by former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who pointed to the mutually-beneficial economic relationship between the U.S. and its allies.

“I think he did the right thing here,” Lieberman told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto during an interview on Tuesday. “Because we’re dealing with allies. The Europeans are very important economic partners of ours.”

President Trump has repeatedly said he wants to shrink the trade deficit between the U.S. and the EU, which topped $64 billion in 2017.

But Lieberman said while the European bloc may be taking advantage of Washington in terms of trade, the U.S. reaps a number of other benefits from the 28 members, like job creation and investments. In 2015, British-owned companies employed the highest number of U.S. workers at 1.1 million, followed by Japan, France, Germany and Canada -- each over 600,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The tariffs -- 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum -- were supposed to go into effect on May 1, but following Trump’s meetings last week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, the White House extended the deadline.

In response to the potential implementation of tariffs, the European trading bloc drafted a list of retaliatory countermeasures against U.S. products, including jeans, motorcycles and bourbon unless it was granted an exemption.

The trade negotiations are coming at a key time for the president, who’s embroiled in a similar situation with China, while also heading toward unprecedented meetings with North Korea.

“I don’t think he wants to get into a trade war with Europe,” Lieberman said. “I think he also wants to have the European leaders stand with him in these other negotiations, which are different. Because unlike the Europeans,