On Friday, President Trump announced at a rally at U.S. Steel’s facility in Pennsylvania that he will double the tariffs on steel imports from 25 percent to 50 percent. In a social media post following his speech, President Trump said he will also increase the aluminum tariffs to 50 percent, and both tariff increases will go into effect on June 4.
The President’s February 10 Proclamation on steel and February 11 Proclamation on aluminum invoked the reports of investigations and recommendations delivered by the Secretary of Commerce in January 2018 to modify the Section 232 measures on steel and aluminum. This modification resulted in universal 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum products and terminated both the Section 232 Exclusions Program that previously allowed companies to apply for tariff exclusions for products not available in a sufficient quantity from U.S. producers and the agreements reached with various countries. The newly promised action appears poised to again invoke the Secretary of Commerce’s 2018 reports to raise tariffs further. We note that Section 232, by its terms, requires the President to “determine the nature and duration of the action” to adjust imports “within 90 days after receiving” the report from the Secretary of Commerce.
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