US President Donald Trump has signed an executive decree to impose new costs of 25% on American steel and aluminum imports, which are estimated at $ 50 billion in 2024, which is harmful to the economies of many countries which harvest the yields of their metal sales.
“This means that many companies will open in the United States,” said Trump when she signed the procedures.
An American official said that these costs will go into vigue minerals in sectors such as manufacturing construction cars, drinking mobilization and the production of military equipment, according to Bloomberg Agency in a report.
Trump had revealed 25% of complete customs definitions on imports from Canada and Mexico, before hanging them for a month, then he then imposed new costs of 10% on goods imported from China.
The recent plan is to review the customs definition system that was presented during the first state of Trump, when imports of steel and aluminum were subjected to new drawings after years of complaints of American companies and unions on external competition.
No exceptions
The American president said that customs definitions will be applied to “everyone”, that is to say that all countries, and the costs will also cover the final metal products, an important step that will have price effects on a large scale on American consumers.
The customs definitions imposed during the first Trump presidential term have focused on basic steel and aluminum products, while recent customs prices will include products such as metal forms, manufactured products necessary to build cars , window tires and skyscrapers among others.
Why steel and aluminum?
During the first Trump presidential campaign a decade ago, he criticized the drop in the performance of American steel factories and aluminum production centers after decades of production and the drop in the number of jobs in the middle From the boom of China as a great manufacturing force in the world.
In 2018, during his first mandate at the White House, Trump imposed 25% of customs definitions on steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports, and its objective was to improve the American product by making foreign materials More expensive for American buyers, but in the end many were exempt from the main suppliers, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union, and today, American industries say they are still fighting to compete imports, according to Bloomberg.
On the largest scale, commercial difficulties in the global sectors of steel and aluminum increased last year in the middle of a renewed flow of products from China, causing commercial measures against Chinese imports of Many places such as Vietnam, India and the European Union.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zy_c33kus4
The most affected countries
Pure imports from the United States represent more than 80% of its aluminum needs and around 17% of its steel needs, according to figures from the Morgan Stanley Foundation.
Aluminum
Canada has the largest burden of customs duties as the main supplier of all its southern neighbors, and this is the list of 10 largest aluminum exporters for the United States by value of American imports, according to the data from the American trade department reported by Bloomberg:
- Canada $ 9.5 billion (58% of the total aluminum imports).
- $ 1.1 billion water (6% of total imports).
- Mexico 686.2 million dollars.
- South Korea 643.7 million dollars.
- China $ 507.8 million.
- Bahrain 488.7 million dollars.
- Argentina $ 459.5 million.
- South Africa 383.6 million dollars.
- Australia 273.3 million dollars.
- India $ 270.9 million.
Steel
- Canada $ 11.2 billion (23% of the total steel imports).
- Mexico is $ 6.5 billion (16% of total imports).
- Brazil is $ 5.2 billion (12% of total imports).
- China $ 5.2 billion.
- Taiwan $ 3.8 billion.
- South Korea 3.2 billion dollars.
- Germany $ 2.9 billion.
- Japan $ 2.4 billion.
- India $ 1.9 billion.
- Vietnam $ 1.7 billion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azhujargm8
What to follow?
While Trump has drawn up the plan in general terms, in his first mandate and so far in his second mandate indicates that there is room for negotiations, and in the end, many countries or exported areas have won exemptions Customs prices on minerals that have been launched in Trump’s first state because it has also won some oil companies, except.
This time, US officials said they were warning of giving exceptions, but Trump said he could consider granting an exception to Australia, taking Australia’s importation into account.
According to Bloomberg, it is not clear how new tariffs will relate to steel and aluminum to trade measures already in force, for example, it is not known if new customs tariffs on Metals will be added to other costs, for example, 10% of new complete customs tariffs.
Trump said he wanted to impose customs definitions on copper imports and that their implementation would take a little longer than those imposed on aluminum and steel.
Previous experience
When the Trump administration revealed the customs of steel and aluminum, the objective was to increase self-sufficiency in the United States of these minerals, but in 2024, the production of the American steel industry was 1% less than in 2017, before the first Trump fees.
The growing costs, in particular for employment and energy, were a key factor in the long-term decline in these industries, and Canada also plays a vital role in the supply of aluminum to the United States, because Its factories often depend on inexpensive hydroeleturation energy, according to Bloomberg.
Economists warn that Trump’s customs tasks may increase family spending on articles, including grocery store and petrol, which can fuel the inflationary pressures that the president has exerted in his electoral campaign to calm down , and administration officials react that fees are part of a greater campaign, economic strategy, including tax reductions, extension and widening of local energy production, which would contribute to Reduce the cost in general.