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Donald Trump said he would double tariffs on steel imports from 25 per cent to 50 per cent in the latest escalation of his global trade war, vowing to bring the industry “roaring back to life” in the US.
The president unveiled the increased levies as he touted a $15bn partnership between Nippon Steel and US Steel at a rally in Pennsylvania, promising to erect a tariff “fence” around domestic production of the metal.
“We’re going to bring it from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry,” he told the crowd in West Mifflin.
“Nobody is going to get around that . . . At 25 per cent, they can sort of get over that fence. At 50 per cent they can no longer get over the fence.”
Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium products imported into the US earlier this year, in one of the first broadsides of his global trade war. He did not mention an increase to the aluminium levy during Friday’s speech.
The announcement ratchets up trade tensions once again days after a US trade court ruled many of the president’s tariffs illegal, though this did not include sectoral levies, such as those on steel and aluminium.
Trump’s volatile approach to tariffs — repeatedly announcing levies before dialling them back — has caused confusion among companies and led to huge swings in markets.
“We are clearly nowhere near the end of whiplash effects from Trump’s on-again-off-again, broad and narrowly targeted tariffs that have been aimed at US allies and rivals alike,” said Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University.
The Trump administration reached a deal with China two weeks ago to lower tariffs between the two countries, which had reached as much as 145 per cent. But tensions appeared to be rising again on Friday when Trump accused Beijing of reneging on the arrangement.
The steel tariff escalation comes after the president last week broadly endorsed Nippon Steel’s bid to enter a “partnership” with US Steel, a deal he had opposed on the campaign trail.
But Trump on Friday hailed what he called a “blockbuster agreement” with a “great partner” that he said would “ensure this storied American company stays an American company”.
He said Nippon had made a “monumental commitment” to invest $14bn in the company, including more than $2bn to increase steel production in Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley and $7bn to modernise mills and build facilities in Indiana, Minnesota, Alabama and Arkansas.
