Trump Imposes 25% Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum Imports

Trump Imposes 25% Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum Imports

President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing 25% tariffs on aluminum and steel imports.

The tariffs apply to imports from Canada, Japan, Mexico, and South Korea.

From the video:

WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF STEPHEN MILLER: In 2018, you imposed Ad valorem duties, tariffs on imports of steel at a 25% rate. Since that time, a large number of exclusions and exceptions to that tariff rule have been implemented because of the damage to the United States steel industry that those exceptions and exclusions have imposed, were now, this order would reimpose that 25% ad valorum tariff rate on imports of steel. And it’s presented for your signature now.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Okay. Do you understand what that means? Is a big deal. It’s a big deal. This is the beginning of making America rich again.

Mr. Secretary, do you have anything to say? As you know, Howard is Secretary of Commerce, doing a fantastic job. And what do you have to say about it?

SECRETARY OF COMMERCE HOWARD LUTNICK: So when you imposed the tariffs the first time you added 120,000 jobs. And since that time, it’s been picked away and nicked away and excluded away, and we’ve lost 107,000 jobs.

And remember, these aren’t just general jobs. These are steel workers in America. And now you’re going to bring them back. You’re going to bring those 120,000 jobs back to America.

You are the president who’s standing up for the American steel worker, and I am tremendously impressed and delighted to stand next to you.

President Trump signs 25% tariffs on steel imports:

"This is a big deal. This is the beginning of making America rich again." pic.twitter.com/szpQ17GQh1

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 10, 2025

From the second video:

MILLER: So with respect to aluminum, similarly to steel, since 2018, a large number of exceptions and exemptions have been added into the law. This eliminates all of those and also increases the ad valorum tariff rate from ten to 25%.

TRUMP: Mostly. The last part is the most important. Right. Would you say? So, basically, this is aluminum. The same thing. No exceptions, no nothing. And it’s going to bring our aluminum business back and may go higher. I mean, frankly, it may go higher. And we’re going to also be talking about receptive…we’re going to be talking about things over the next three weeks that I think will be amazing for our country, amazing for our jobs. And we’ll bring us to a new level of prosperity.

And I think, frankly, our allies and our enemies all over the world expected this. They really expected it for years. They really expected it some time during the Biden administration. But they didn’t do anything.

As you know I put tariffs on China. We took in hundreds of billions of dollars with those tariffs and Biden wasn’t able to get him out. He tried to, but it was too much money. He couldn’t do it, and we’re going to be doing a very concise and it’s going to be good, and I don’t think, if done properly, and we’re going to try and do that. We don’t want it to hurt other countries, but they’ve been taking advantage of us for years and years. And years.

And they’ve charged us tariffs, most of them have charged us. Almost everyone, I would say. Almost without exception, they’ve charged us and we haven’t charged them. And it’s time to be reciprocal.

So you’ll be hearing that word a lot. Reciprocal. If they charge us, we charge them. If they’re at 25, we’re at 25. If they’re are ten, we’re at ten. And if they’re much higher than 25, that’s where we are too.

So that’s having to do with everything. That’s not just steel and aluminum, but we’ll be discussing that over the next couple of weeks, but we will be looking at chips and we will be looking at cars and we’re going to be looking at pharmaceuticals, and there’ll be a couple of other things also in addition.

President Trump imposes a 25% tariff on aluminum imports.

President Trump will ALWAYS protect critical American industry. pic.twitter.com/VWsCYYJPI7

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 10, 2025

REPORTER: What do you say to consumers who are worried about prices?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You're going to ultimately have a price reduction because they're going to make their steel here… we'll also have jobs — many, many more jobs. pic.twitter.com/FHpRCAwl1o

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 10, 2025

I hate tariffs. But CNBC said America could come out the winner in this case:

U.S. steel imports have declined substantially over the past decade, official data shows, falling 35% between 2014 and 2024 — despite a 2.5% annual uptick to 26.2 million metric tons last year. Many attribute this to tariffs introduced under Trump’s first administration.

James Campbell, an analyst at commodity pricing consultancy CRU, said the country witnessed an “investment rise in both the steel and aluminum sectors.”

A Congressional Research Service report showed “that in the first five months of the policy [in 2018], the Trump administration collected more than $1.4 billion in revenue.”

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