US to double tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to 50%, Trump says 2 hours ago Brandon Drenon and Natalie Sherman BBC News President Donald Trump has announced the US will double its current tariff rate on steel and aluminium imports from 25% to 50%, starting on Wednesday.
Trump also said that $14bn would be invested into the area’s steel production through a partnership between US Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel.
Trump began his remarks by saying he “saved” US Steel, America’s biggest steel manufacturer, located in Pittsburgh, with the 25% steel tariffs he implemented during his first term as president in 2018.
He recalled “making a lot of money” in the years after Trump instituted steel tariffs in his first term.
China is the world’s largest manufacturer of steel, responsible for over half of global steel production, according to World Steel Association statistics from 2022.
Trump threatens to double US tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to 50%.
Two hours earlier.
Drenon, Brandon, and Sherman.
NBC News.
Beginning on Wednesday, President Donald Trump has declared that the United States will double its current tariff rate on imports of steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%.
Trump claimed the action would lessen dependency on China while boosting the domestic steel industry and supply while speaking at a rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Trump also announced that US Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel would invest $14 billion in the region’s steel industry. Both businesses have not yet confirmed a deal, and the partnership’s specifics are still unknown.
Trump’s erratic approach to tariffs since taking office again in January has taken a new turn with the announcement.
Trump said, to thunderous cheers, “There will be no layoffs and no outsourcing whatsoever, and every US steelworker will soon receive a well-deserved $5,000 bonus.”.
Steelworkers’ main worries regarding the US-Japan trade agreement were how Japan would uphold the union contract, which governs hiring and compensation.
During his first term as president in 2018, Trump imposed 25 percent steel tariffs, which he claimed “saved” US Steel, the nation’s largest steel manufacturer based in Pittsburgh.
He hailed the 50 percent increase as a means of securing the future of US Steel.
“At fifty percent,” he stated, “they can no longer get over the fence.”. As never before, we will reintegrate Pennsylvania steel into the backbone of the United States. “.
The announcement coincides with an ongoing legal battle over the legality of some of Trump’s international tariffs, which an appeals court has upheld after the Court of International Trade ordered the administration to stop the taxes.
The case had no effect on his steel and aluminum tariffs.
“It is a good day for steelworkers,” JoJo Burgess, who attended Trump’s rally and is a member of the local United Steelworkers union, told the BBC.
Mr. Burgess, the mayor of neighboring Washington, Pennsylvania, expressed hope about the partnership with Nippon Steel and said he hoped it would help produce a new generation of steel workers in the region.
He recalled “making a lot of money” in the years following Trump’s first-term steel tariffs.
Burgess stated: “I’m never going to disagree with something that’s going to level the playing field for American manufacturing,” despite the fact that he would not call himself a Trump supporter and claims to have only supported Democratic presidential candidates in the previous 20 years. “..”.
However, Trump’s tariffs have so far mostly caused economic chaos on a worldwide scale. Markets and international trade have been disrupted, and rifts have developed or deepened between the US and other nations, including some of its closest allies.
The levies have provoked a tit-for-tat trade war between the two largest economies in the world, China and the US, and strained ties between them.
President Trump accused China on Friday of breaking a tariff truce they had agreed to earlier this month during Geneva talks, but he did not elaborate.
China has not been removing non-tariff barriers as agreed under the deal, according to clarification later provided by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
After that, China retaliated by accusing the US of misconduct. Beijing’s Friday response called on the US to “cease discriminatory restrictions against China” but did not directly address the US claims.
According to 2022 data from the World Steel Association, China is the world’s largest steel manufacturer, accounting for more than half of global steel production.
Over time, the US has fallen to fourth place in the world’s steel production, behind China, India, and Japan.
“A nation cannot exist without steel. You cannot create a military because you lack a nation. “What will we do? Let’s go to China to get our steel from the army tanks,” Trump joked during Friday’s rally in Pittsburgh.
