A crane moves a roll of coiled steel at a steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario. (James MacDonald/Bloomberg News)
President Donald Trump will sign a directive June 3 formally raising steel and aluminum tariffs to 50% from 25%, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced.
Trump said May 30 that the higher charge would take effect June 4, but Leavitt did not elaborate on the timing. The move raises trade tensions at a time when the U.S. is locked in negotiations with numerous trading partners over his so-called reciprocal duties before a July 9 deadline.
The president’s ability to unilaterally impose tariffs stands on shakier legal ground, after a federal court knocked down duties he announced under an emergency law. His levies on metals were not subject to that ruling.
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Trump announced the decision during a speech at a United States Steel Corp. plant in Pennsylvania on May 30, where he endorsed the sale of the company to Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. while pledging that it would remain under some form of American control.
“That means that nobody’s going to be able to steal your industry,” he told steelworkers. “It’s at 25%; they can sort of get over that fence; at 50% they can no longer get over the fence.”
He later announced in a social media post that the aluminum tariff would also rise to the same level.
Trump’s administration is locked in a legal battle over the bulk of its tariffs, imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The steel and aluminum tariffs are unaffected by that fight because they were imposed using a different authority.
