ADVERTISEMENTIn a rapid reaction to this decision, a spokesperson for the European Commission said in a statement sent by email: “We strongly regret the announced increase in American prices on steel imports from 25% to 50%,” reported the Reuters news agency, adding:
“This decision adds additional uncertainty to the global economy and increases costs for consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic”.
Also referring to the current transatlantic trade negotiations, the spokesman said that “the increase in prices also undermines continuous efforts to achieve a negotiated solution” and said that “the EU is ready to impose countermeasures, including in response to the last increase in the American rate”, if necessary.
The American president said that the doubling of imported steel taxes would further strengthen the steel industry in the United States “.
In an article, published later on his Truth social platform, the American president added that aluminum homework will also go from 25% to 50%. Trump said the two increases will come into force on Wednesday, June 4.
The announcement comes after confused days during which the judiciary made opposite decisions on Trump’s customs policy, blocking it first with a decision of the US international trade court and finally giving it the green light, pending a new decision by a federal court of appeal.
Investment from Japan
Trump spoke on Friday at the Irvin factory of my Valley Works in Us Steel on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he also discussed the details of a finalized agreement for the investment of Nippon Steel in Japan in the emblematic American steel.
Trump told journalists after returning to Washington, however, that he had not yet approved the agreement. “I have to approve the final agreement with Japanese and we have not yet seen the final agreement, but they have made a very big commitment and it is a very big investment,” he said.
Although Trump initially promised to block the attempt at the Japanese steel to buy us steel, he changed CAP and announced last week an agreement for a partial sale in Nippon Steel.
The Japanese company has never claimed to have changed its previous offer to buy and fully control US Steel, for $ 14.9 billion, although it has increased the amount it promised to invest in American factories and guaranteed that it would only be a one.
“We are here today to celebrate an anextraordinary agreement which will guarantee that this historic American company will remain an American business,” said Trump during a rally in one of the warehouses of us Steel “, you will remain an American company, you know, right?”
The United Steelworkers Union said that it was very concerned “by the impact that this merger of US Steel with a foreign competitor will have on national security, our members and the communities where we live and work.”
According to the price index of the government producer, steel prices increased by 16% since Trump became president in mid-January.
In March 2025, steel cost $ 984 per metric tonne in the United States, much more than the price in Europe ($ 690) or China ($ 392), according to the US Commerce Ministry.
Among the partners most affected by the possible increase in tasks on these documents are the EU, which had just obtained a July postponement of the increase in general tasks on exports to the United States and Canada.
“The dismantling of efficient, competitive and reliable cross -border supply chains as we have done in steel and aluminum at a high cost for the two countries,” said Candace Laing, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Last year, the United States produced about three times more steel than its import, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and South Korea as the main sources of imports. Analysts have credited Trump’s first mandate for helping to strengthen the national steel industry.
The fate of the US Steel, formerly the largest steel company in the world, could weigh the mid-term elections of the Republican Party in the still decisive state of Pennsylvania and others which depend on manufacturing.
