President Donald Trump’s use of reciprocal tariffs has been used to achieve national security objectives far outside the scope of their economic veneer, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

According to internal government documents reviewed by the outlet, State Department officials considered urging U.S. trading partners to oppose reducing greenhouse gas emissions from global container ships. A draft “action memo” advised Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the issue was raised during trade talks with maritime nations like Singapore as the administration sought “to inject this issue into the ongoing bilateral trade negotiations.” 

Following those discussions, administration officials considered expanding trade talks with over a dozen countries, earlier this spring proposing that Israel end a Chinese firm’s port control and urging South Korea to publically back U.S. troop deployment against China and North Korea, according to the documents. Wendy Cutler, who spent more than a quarter century in the office of the U.S. trade representative said, “This is the first time I’ve seen that type of request in a trade agreement. When you’re sitting at the negotiating table, you’re not talking about this stuff.”

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