Posted on 02 Jun 2025
US President Donald Trump is doubling his tariff on steel imports to 50% from 25%, Kallanish reports.
Trump revealed the news Friday during a rally at the US Steel’s Irving Plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. In a social media post later, he specified that the 50% levy goes into effect on Wednesday.
Trump was at the Irving Plant, part of Mon Valley Works, for the rally celebrating apparent investment promises by Japan’s Nippon Steel (see separate story). He says the new tariff level would help ensure that the tentative “planned partnership” between Nippon and US Steel achieves success.
More broadly, Trump says he doubled the steel tariff to erect a more impenetrable barrier to foreign steel competing against US domestic steel. He explains that the 25% tariff potentially could be overcome by some overseas exporters.
“At 50%, they can no longer get over the fence,” the president proclaims.
One domestic steel association immediately lauded the move. The American Iron and Steel Institute issued a statement noting that Chinese steel production was 118 million tonnes last year, unfairly exceeding total North American volumes.
“Led by China, global steel overcapacity and production continues to grow, even as overall global steel demand is being impacted by the sharp downturn in the Chinese construction sector,” AISI president and chief executive Kevin Dempsey comments. “Given these challenging international conditions that show no signs of improvement, this tariff action will help prevent new surges in imports that would injure American steel producers and their workers.”
Trump’s 25% tariff on steel imports, one the earliest trade measure announced as his second presidential term got underway, went into effect in March (see Kallanish 13 March).
Trump has used Section 232, with its national security rationale, as the platform for the steel tariffs. Earlier in the week, separate Trump tariffs including his “reciprocal” and fentanyl-linked levies were struck down by the US Court of International Trade (see Kallanish 30 May). Those “emergency” measures are still in effect pending an appeals process.
Source:Kallanish
