[WEST MIFFLIN] US President Donald Trump on Friday said he planned to increase tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum to 50 per cent from 25 per cent, ratcheting up pressure on global steel producers and deepening his trade war.
“We are going to be imposing a 25 per cent increase. We’re going to bring it from 25 to 50 per cent – the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States,” he said at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump announced the tariff increase on steel products at a speech given just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was talking up an agreement between Nippon Steel and US Steel. Trump said the US$14.9 billion deal, like the tariff increase, will help keep jobs for steel workers in the US.
Later, he added the increased tariff would also apply to aluminum products and that it would take effect on Jun 4. “Our steel and aluminum industries are coming back like never before,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Shares of steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs Inc surged 26 per cent after the market close as investors bet the new levies will help its profits.
The doubling of steel and aluminum levies intensifies Trump’s global trade war and came just hours after he accused China of violating an agreement with the US to mutually roll back tariffs and trade restrictions for critical minerals.
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Trump spoke at US Steel’s Mon Valley Works, a steel plant that symbolizes both the one-time strength and the decline of US manufacturing power as the Rust Belt’s steel plants and factories lost business to international rivals. Closely contested Pennsylvania is also a major prize in presidential elections.
The steel and aluminum tariffs were among the earliest put into effect by Trump when he returned to office in January. The tariffs of 25 per cent on most steel and aluminum imported to the US went into effect in March, and he had briefly threatened a 50 per cent levy on Canadian steel but ultimately backed off.
Under the so-called Section 232 national security authority, the import taxes include both raw metals and derivative products as diverse as stainless steel sinks, gas ranges, air conditioner evaporator coils, horseshoes, aluminum frying pans and steel door hinges.
The total 2024 import value for the 289 product categories came to US$147.3 billion with nearly two-thirds aluminum and one-third steel, according to Census Bureau data retrieved through the US International Trade Commission’s Data Web system.
By contrast, Trump’s first two rounds of punitive tariffs on Chinese industrial goods in 2018 during his first term totaled US$50 billion in annual import value.
The US is the world’s largest steel importer, excluding the European Union, with a total of 26.2 million tonnes of imported steel in 2024, according to the Department of Commerce. As a result, the new tariffs will likely increase steel prices across the board, hitting industry and consumers alike. REUTERS
