Trump Considering Broad-Based Investigation That Could Lead to Tariffs on Steel and Household Appliances

Trump with his anti-free trade Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Here's the latest on President Trump's obsession with putting up trade barriers.

Jonathan Swan  reports at Axios:

The Trump administration is working on an executive order that would initiate investigations into "unfair" product dumping from foreign companies — an action that could lead to tariffs on a wide range of products.

These plans are very fluid, and internal disagreements remain about how aggressive this order should be. Here's what I've learned from administration sources:

Steel and aluminum will be targeted.
Other products, including household appliances, could be targeted as well...

Scope: This investigation could result in penalties that would be much broader than the anti-steel dumping measure the New York Times previewed last week.

Swan says  Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is running point on this executive order, and an it could arrive as early as late April.

What's interesting to me here is that this appears to be consideration of a trade tax/tariff  that would be in addition to a border adjustment tax,

Remember, Trump told The New York Times last week:

Well, we’re very much — I don’t want to announce it yet — but we’re very much set, my team and others — uh, [Treasury Secretary] Steve Mnuchin, lot of other people — we’re very much set on the concept of the [ border adjustment] tax.