Trump expands steel and aluminum tariffs to all countries

President Donald Trump on Monday expanded his steel and aluminum tariffs to cover all imports, effectively canceling deals with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan and others.

The new executive orders build off the 25 percent tariff on steel and the 10 percent tariff on aluminum Trump imposed in 2018 during his first administration by raising duties, closing loopholes and eliminating exemptions, according to a White House official.

“It’s a big deal. This is the beginning of making America rich again,” Trump said.

Trump’s nominee to be Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, was at Trump’s side when the president signed the two executive orders.

“When you imposed the tariffs the first time, you added 120,000 jobs,” Lutnick told Trump. “And since that time, [the tariffs have] been picked away and nicked away and excluded away, and we’ve lost 107,000 jobs. And remember, these aren’t just general jobs. These are steel workers in America.”

Trump’s new action keeps the steel tariff at 25 percent but makes it more comprehensive and raises the aluminum tariff also to 25 percent.

“The Trump 2.0 tariffs are a direct response to the failed policies of the Biden administration, which allowed China, Russia and many of our allies like Canada, Mexico, Brazil and the EU to manipulate trade and cripple U.S. industry. These measures will revitalize domestic production and safeguard critical industries,” a White House official told reporters on a call previewing the announcement, who was granted anonymity per the ground rules of the call.

The White House official also said the Trump administration was ending “hundreds of thousands” of tariff exclusions that have been provided to importers for particular steel products over the years. That practice began during the first Trump administration and continued under President Joe Biden.

“Even more impactful, we saw a wide variety of voluntary agreements in lieu of the tariffs, various kinds of alternative arrangements with … many of our allies, and these alternative agreements and exemptions were universally abused,” the White House official said.

The official also alleged that strategic competitors like China and Russia were transhipping steel through Canada and Mexico, while Japan was targeting the U.S. market with high-value specialty steel products. South Korea, the official continued, has been “exploiting” a quota exemption it negotiated with the first Trump administration to flood the U.S. market, while Brazil had aggressively ramped up its exports of semi-finished steel to the United States.

Under the two executive orders, Trump will also be implementing tougher standards for steel and aluminum produced in North America to make it harder for China and Russia to ship their steel into the United States through those two countries, the White House official said.

Trump originally imposed a 25 percent tariff on all steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on all aluminum imports in 2018. Those were imposed under Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act and applied to most countries around the world.

However, from the start, a few countries — South Korea, Argentina and Brazil — opted for steel tariff-rate quotas instead of the simple tariff approach. Those “TRQs” allow a certain amount of products to enter duty-free before the 25 percent takes effect.

Trump also exempted steel and aluminum imports from Australia from the tariffs after determining they did not pose a national security threat, a move welcomed warmly by Canberra. He continued that policy through the remainder of his first term, and the Biden administration maintained it, as well.

Under pressure from Congress, Trump eventually exempted Canada and Mexico from the tariffs, a move that also ended Canada and Mexico’s retaliatory duties against the United States and eased passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to replace NAFTA.

Later, after Biden took office, the United States negotiated separate agreements with the European Union and the United Kingdom to replace the steel and aluminum tariffs with less restrictive TRQs.

The Biden administration also struck a deal with Japan to replace the steel tariffs with TRQs but left the aluminum tariffs in place.

The European Union deal, unlike the ones with Japan and the U.K., was intended to be temporary while the countries negotiated a broader agreement aimed at forging a united front against China by putting in place measures to discourage global steel excess capacity and to encourage the manufacturing of steel produced with lower carbon emissions.

U.S. and EU negotiators failed to reach a deal within the two years they gave themselves, setting the stage for the EU, under a previously approved regulation, to resume and double the retaliation it previously had imposed on roughly $3 billion worth of goods, including American whiskey.

However, the EU agreed in late December 2024 to once again to pause its retaliation until March 31, 2025, to allow more time to reach a permanent deal with the United States.

Trump’s action today could reignite the EU’s retaliation, injuring once again a broad array of American companies that suffered from the first round.

Even with Trump’s earlier tariffs and the various quotas, imports still accounted for about one-fifth of total U.S. steel consumption in 2024.

The United States imported 22.5 million tons of “finished” steel products and another 6.3 million tons of steel for further processing. The largest suppliers were Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Vietnam.

Myah Ward contributed to this report.