US president Donald Trump has said he intends to announce 25 per cent tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminium on Monday.
Mr Trump, speaking to reporters yesterday on Air Force One, said the tariffs will apply to the metal imports from all countries. He did not specify when the duties would take effect.
Mr Trump also said he would announce reciprocal tariffs later in the week on countries that tax US imports. Those tariffs will not go into effect the same day as the announcement, which could be Tuesday or Wednesday but soon after, he said.
The move on steel and aluminium brought a swift reaction from Doug Ford, the premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, who accused the US president of “shifting goalposts and constant chaos” that would put the economy at risk.
Monday’s tariffs would come on top of existing metals duties.
The largest sources of US steel imports are Canada, Brazil and Mexico, followed by South Korea and Vietnam, according to government and American Iron and Steel Institute data.
By a large margin, Canada is the largest supplier of primary aluminium metal to the US, accounting for 79 per cent of total imports in the first 11 months of 2024. Mexico is a major supplier of aluminium scrap and aluminium alloy.
The moves are Mr Trump’s latest in a series of threatened tariffs on countries and specific sectors.
New steel tariffs could ripple through US energy businesses, from wind developers to oil drillers that are reliant on speciality grades not made in the US.
Some oil companies won exclusions from tariffs on the metal during Mr Trump’s first term.
Many steel and aluminium buyers and sellers had expected they would have at least until March to prepare for any tariff implementation.
Mr Trump delayed to March the tariffs planned for February 1st when Mexico and Canada offered modest proposals to increase security at the borders.
It was not immediately clear if the tariffs would still apply to Mexico and Canada. The two nations are significant suppliers of metals to the US.
The scale of Mr Trump’s overall tariff ambitions remain unclear. He has also said he would impose tariffs on other goods, including pharmaceuticals, oil and semiconductors and said he is considering import duties on the European Union.
Mr Trump last week imposed a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods. Beijing also announced retaliatory measures slated to take effect later this month that were more calibrated in scope, targeting only imported goods from the US valued at $14 billion in 2024.
That marked a more cautious approach from China than in Mr Trump’s first term, when the world’s two largest economies traded tit-for-tat trade levies for years.
Markets will be watching to see if the two countries can strike a deal before the Chinese levies on the US take effect on today.
Mr Trump has embraced tariffs as a centrepiece of his bid to remake the US economy, shrink trade deficits and find new sources of revenue to help deliver on his tax agenda.
The moves, though, threaten to wreak economic havoc, with economists saying the levies will raise costs for US manufacturers who import goods, raise prices for consumers already weary from inflation, reduce trade flows and fail to bring in the revenue Trump has predicted. – Bloomberg
