Trump doubles steel tariffs, spares UK, ignites trade tensions
President of the USA, Donald Trump, has decided that starting on 4th June, tariffs on imported steel and aluminium to the USA from abroad will increase to 50 per cent. An exception will be imports from the United Kingdom, where tariffs will remain at 25 per cent.
"In my judgment, the increased tariffs will more effectively counter foreign countries that continue to offload low-priced, excess steel and aluminum in the United States market and thereby undercut the competitiveness of the United States steel and aluminum industries," the president wrote in an executive order dated Tuesday.
Trump announced the increase from 25 to 50 per cent on Friday. As he emphasised, the additional fees are intended to strengthen the American steel industry. According to the executive order, an exception is made for the United Kingdom, where the 25 per cent rate remains intact.
"We're going to bring it from 25% to 50% - the tariffs on steel into the United States of America," Trump announced during a meeting with workers at the metallurgical giant, US Steel, in Pennsylvania. He later explained on his Truth Social platform that the new tariffs will take effect on June 4th and will also apply to aluminium.
The USA is the largest steel importer in the world. Approximately one-quarter of the steel used in the United States is imported. The leading suppliers of this raw material to the USA are neighbouring Canada and Mexico, as well as Japan, South Korea, and Germany, according to Reuters. Half of the aluminium used in the USA comes from abroad, mainly from Canada.
The European Commission sharply reacted to Donald Trump's decision to raise tariffs on steel and aluminium from the EU to 50 per cent. Brussels announced possible retaliatory actions and warned that this would harm the global economy and affect the industry on both sides of the Atlantic.
