Commerce secretary recommends steep tariffs on metals
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday recommended an array of stiff tariffs and other tough trade actions on imports of steel and aluminum from China and other nations, saying the influx of foreign metals has compromised national security.
In a call with reporters Friday, Wilbur Ross, secretary of commerce, laid out a variety of recommendations for President Donald Trump to choose from, including a 24 percent tariff on all steel imports from all countries.
The scope and severity of any trade action will ultimately be determined by Trump, who has broad authority to decide whether to impose tariffs or quotas, and what countries should face them. Those measures, which could be announced in the following weeks, are aimed at saving U.S. steel and aluminum producers, who have struggled to compete with a flood of cheap metals from abroad, particularly from China.
The Commerce Department, in a report published Friday, proposed a 53 percent tariff on all steel products from 12 countries, including China, Brazil, India, South Korea and Vietnam. All other countries would be subject to a quota equal to the amount of their exports to the United States in 2017. He proposed a final alternative that involved no tariffs, but a quota on all steel products from all countries equal to 63 percent of their exports to the United States in 2017.
For aluminum, the secretary presented a similar array of three options. The first was a 7.7 percent tariff on all countries and all products. The second was a 23.6 percent tariff on China, Hong Kong, Russia, Venezuela and Vietnam, with all other countries subject to a quota equal to the amount they exported the United States in 2017. The third alternative was a quota on all imports from all countries of up to 86.7 percent of their 2017 exports to the United States.
Any action to limit imports is likely to end up raising the price of steel, which could destabilize U.S. industries from automakers to food packagers.
There would be a 90-day appeal period allowing U.S. companies to request exceptions, Ross said.
The statement came in a report released Friday morning by the Commerce Department, the result of twin investigations initiated last April to determine whether steel and aluminum imports were threatening national security.