Trump escalates the trade war with 25% duty on steel and aluminum

On February 10, 2025By Littum

By 2024, 23% of all steel used in the United States was imported with Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Vietnam as the largest suppliers.

President Donald Trump said he will introduce 25% tariff rates on all steel and aluminum imports on Monday in the continuous escalation of a trade war with trading partners, including the US closest neighbors.

Trump released the message while talking to journalists about Air Force One on his way to the Super Bowl 2025 in New Orleans on Sunday.

He also said he would soon advertise mutual tariffs this week. The tariffs would be proportional to the daily countries located on inported US goods.

“Very simple, if they charge us, we charge them,” he said. By 2024, 23% of all steel used in the United States was imported with Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Vietnam as the largest suppliers, according to they American Iron and Steel Institute. Time this month, Trump paused 25% duty, which he had planned to impose on Canada and Mexico for 30 days after the countries’ leaders promised to intensify their efforts to improve border security.

Within hours after Trump’s Saturday order, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hit back with tit-for-tat registration places 25% duties on US goods. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said she was considering “customs and non-duty goals in defense of Mexico’s interests.”

Trump, who has called himself “Customs,” said the move was to force the countries to curb the flow of migrants and fentanyl across borders and into the US tariffs has been central to Trump’s economic strategy and leans on them to increase revenue and protect jobs. He also considers them tools to help negotiations with different countries.

About half of all aluminum used in the United States is imported where most of it comes from Canada. At 3.2 million tonnes last year, Canadian imports were twice as much as the next nine countries combined, according to Reuters.

Trump said earlier this month he wanted the countries to “balance their trade, number one.”

According to the office of the US Trade Representative, the US item deficit with Canada 80.1 billion dollars in 2022, an increase of 68% over 2021. Meanwhile, the trade deficit stood with Mexico on 131.1 billion dollars in 2022, an increase of 24% over 2021.

Economists have warned that customs could raise prices for US consumers. Trump did not contest this claim and said that Americans could feel some “short -term pain” from the new trade war.

“But in the long term, the United States have been ripped off by virtually every country in the world,” he said, adding that the United States had trade deficits with “almost” every country, adding that he “would change it.”

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a correspondent in the White House for USA Today. You can follow her on x @swapnavenugopal