Trump Imposes Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum
Key points
Trump imposed 25% tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, effective March 12, 2025. Trump used national security authority to impose the tariffs and said the U.S. steel and aluminum industries have been harmed by “unfair trade practices and global excess capacity.”
The tariffs show Trump continued reliance on executive actions to remake the U.S. economy. Additionally, steel tariffs emphasize Trump’s view that the trading system is unfair to the United States.
On February 11, 2025, President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum, effective March 12, 2025. Trump said the U.S. steel and aluminum industries have been harmed by “unfair trade practices and global excess capacity.” The White House stated that foreign nations have been flooding the United States market with cheap steel and aluminum, often subsidized by their governments. Trump’s proclamation restores the original rate on steel from the first Trump administration and increases the rate on aluminum imports from 10% to 25%. Trump warned that tariffs could go higher.
The revised tariffs, according to the White House, eliminate all alternative agreements, apply strict “melted and poured” standards, expand tariffs to include key downstream products, terminate all general approved exclusions, and scrutinize tariff misclassification and duty evasion schemes. The White House argued that the new tariffs will help to revitalize the domestic steel and aluminum industries and achieve sustainable capacity utilization of at least 80%.
A key change from the first Trump term is that there are no exemptions. Previously, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the European Union, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom were exempt from the tariffs. These exemptions, according to the White House, “inadvertently created loopholes that were exploited by China and others with excess steel and aluminum capacity, undermining the purpose of these exemptions.”
EU officials said the bloc would impose “firm and proportionate countermeasures” in response to the tariffs. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said the UK will not retaliate and that she believes the UK can reach an agreement to avoid the tariffs. Canada, Brazil, and Mexico are the top steel suppliers to the United States. Trump also said he may consider an exemption for Australia.
National Security Authority
Trump relied on his authority under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which authorizes the President to impose import restrictions if a Department of Commerce investigation determines that specific imports threaten U.S. national security. In imposing the recent tariffs, Trump relied on the same 2018 Commerce Department report that he used in his first term.
In that 2018 report, the Commerce Department found that high levels of steel imports and global excess supply were weakening the U.S. domestic steel and aluminum industries. This threatened U.S. national security by reducing the ability of these industries to meet national defense needs. The report also found that excess production and capacity was a major factor in the decline of domestic aluminum production, plant closures, and job losses.
The report found that global overcapacity was primarily from China’s policies to promote its aluminum and steel industries. This flooded the market, causing third countries to push their excess aluminum and steel to the U.S. market.
The EU responded to the 2018 tariffs with retaliatory tariffs. President Joe Biden agreed to remove the tariffs in 2021 and set tariff-rate quotas, which apply tariffs above a certain level of imports.
Policy Implications
Trump is relying on executive actions to remake U.S. economy: Trump continues to rely on executive actions and a broad interpretation of executive authority to remake the U.S. economy. The use of Section 232 provides an additional resource for executive authority over trade, following the reliance on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on China and threaten tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Tariffs, in turn, are at the center of Trump’s goals to reduce trade deficits and find new sources of government revenue to support tax cuts.
Steel tariffs emphasize Trump’s view that the trading system is unfair: Although national security is the stated reason, the steel and aluminum tariffs were imposed to address the broader trading system, which Trump believes is unfair to the United States. The tariffs against Mexico, Canada, and Colombia, by contrast, were imposed to address a specific non-trade policy issue.
Steel maintains a key position in national security and industrial power: Tariffs can be used to protect certain domestic industries from foreign competition, and steel has long been viewed as an industry critical to both national security and industrial power. Trump stated in 2018 that “steel is steel. You don’t have steel, you don’t have a country.” The U.S. steel industry has long pushed for tariffs, with more recent support coming from President George W. Bush in March 2002. The industry is also centered in key battleground states.