President Donald Trump ordered an import tax of 25% on all steel and aluminum entering the United States into a major expansion of existing trade barriers.
The prices, which will increase metal import costs in the United States, come despite the warnings of reprisals Canada leaders – the largest American metal supplier – as well as other countries.
US companies that depend on imports have also raised concerns, but Trump said his plans would stimulate domestic production.
He warned that there would be no exception, saying that it “simplifies” the rules, which should come into force on March 4.
“It’s a big problem, the start of making America rich,” said Trump.
“Our nation demands that steel and aluminum be made in America, not abroad,” he added.
When asked if the prices could increase consumer prices, the American president replied: “In the end, it will be cheaper.”
“It is time for our large industries to return to America … This is the first of many,” he added, suggesting that other prices could focus on pharmaceuticals and computer flea.
The United States is the world’s largest importer in steel, with Canada, Brazil and Mexico as three main suppliers.
Canada alone represented more than 50% of aluminum imported in the United States last year. If the prices come into force, they should have the most important impact on Canada.
On Monday, Canadian Minister of Innovation, François-Phillippe Champagne, said the prices were “completely unjustified”.
“Canadian steel and aluminum support key industries in the United States since the defense, shipbuilding, automotive energy,” Champagne said. “It makes North America more competitive and safer.”
Before the announcement, the Prime Minister of Ontario, Doug Ford, whose province shelters a large part of Canada’s steel production, accused Trump of “moving goal posts and constant chaos, putting our economy in danger “.
The group of lobbies of Canadian steel manufacturers has called on the Canadian government to retaliate against the United States “immediately”, while Kody Blois, a leading deputy for the Liberal Party in Canada, said that his country was looking for means to reduce its trade relations with the United States.
“This is completely upset which was a very solid partnership,” he told the BBC Newshour before the official order.
Meanwhile, American equity prices increased on Monday in anticipation of the order, the price of Cleveland-Cliffs jumping almost 20%. The prices of steel and aluminum have also jumped.
The answer in a large part of the rest of the market was silent, reflecting questions about Trump’s seriousness on his plans, given his history of postponement of prices or the negotiation of exemptions to the rules.
In 2018, during his first mandate, Trump announced 25% prices on steel and 15% on aluminum, but finally negotiated sculptures for many countries, including Australia, Canada and the Mexico.
“This is a kind of replay of 2018,” said Douglas Irwin, professor of economics at Dartmouth College.
“The biggest question is uncertainty as to whether it is a negotiation tactic or if it simply does not want to speak with other countries and really wants to help the steel industry in this way . “
Last week, Trump ordered 25% import duties on all Canadian and Mexican products, to delay this plan for 30 days. He also brought new 10% American samples to all Chinese products in the United States, causing reprisals from China.
A price is an internal tax taken from the goods when they enter a country, proportional to the value of importation.
The prospect of higher prices introduced on imports in the United States has concerned many world leaders, as it will make companies more expensive to sell goods in the largest economy in the world.
Taxes are a central element of Trump’s economic vision. He considers them as a means of developing the American economy, protecting jobs and increasing tax revenue.
But there are also concerns about the effect in the United States, where many manufacturers in the United States use steel and aluminum in their products and are now faced with the probability of additional costs.
The industrial canal construction groups warned against the blow.
In the first term of Trump, the prices, despite many exemptions, increased the average price of steel and aluminum in the United States by 2.4% and 1.6% respectively, according to the International Commerce Commission American.
Stephen Moore, who advised Trump’s campaign on economic issues in 2016 and is currently a senior member of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington -based Thinktany bank, said that he did not think that steel prices and Aluminum was an effective way to create jobs, noting the experience of the first term.
He said that if Trump was “seriously serious” about trade, he thought that the plan was “to attract the rest of the world’s attention”.
“Above all that Donald Trump does in Washington is a negotiation tactic,” he said.
Trump officials said the latest movements were to prevent countries like China and Russia from avoiding prices by buying low -cost products in other countries.
The American president said that he introduced new standards that required that steel be “melted and poured” and that aluminum be “melted and sunk” in North America.
Nick Iacvella, spokesperson for the coalition for a prosperous America, which represents the steelworks and supports the prices, said that his group is most concerned with an increase in steel imports in Mexico, above the agreed levels in 2019.
But he noted that Canada is sending much more goods to the United States that it may be a trade deficit that was a key problem for Trump.
“There are still imbalances with Canadian and American trade relations that should be treated,” he said.
He added: “I do not think they plan to take a hammer approach to a size, but I think that early, at least, at least, I think of what the president says … (is) these Two countries (Canada and Mexico) abuse their relationship with the United States and we are going to do something.
