Trump Signs Steel, Aluminum Import Tariffs, Excludes Canada, Mexico

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--President Donald Trump said Thursday that new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports were already resulting in plans to revive domestic production. As promised, Trump signed off on a 25% tariff on U.S. steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminum imports, with the exception of imports from Canada and Mexico.

Trump noted United State Steel's (NYSE:X) (U.S. Steel) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) announcement that it would restart one of two blast furnaces ("B" blast furnace) and the steelmaking facilities at its Granite City Works, an integrated steelmaking plant in Granite City, Illinois, in anticipation of the tariff hikes. The company said it expects to call back approximately 500 employees beginning this month, adding the restart process could take up to four months. For information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Trump also said that Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ:CENX) (Chicago, Illinois) plans to invest $100 million to restart and upgrade an idled military-grade aluminum plant in Kentucky.

Canada and Mexico will be spared the tariff hikes, pending the results of negotiations to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Trump said. However, he left the door open to imposing those tariffs on the NAFTA partners if the talks fail and NAFTA is scrapped. Canada and Mexico are among the top five steel importers to the U.S.

He said the U.S. also will consider excluding military allies from the new tariffs. He said the tariffs do not take effect for 15 days "and we are going to see who is treating us fairly, who is not treating us fairly."

The U.S. Department of Commerce recommended that Trump impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports after an investigation found that imports threaten to impair U.S. national security as defined by Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The investigation report noted that the U.S. is the world's largest steel importer, with imports nearly four times its exports, and that six basic oxygen furnaces and four electric furnaces have closed in the U.S. since 2000, with a 35% drop in domestic steel industry employment since 1998.

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