President Trump issued a presidential proclamation on February 10, 2025 that reinforces and expands on existing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.  

Tariffs on steel (25%) and aluminum (10%) imports have been in place since March 2018 under national security provisions of U.S. trade law, although subsequent proclamations by both Presidents Trump and Biden amended these tariffs to allow countries with which the United States holds security relations to negotiate alternative arrangements and to allow U.S. importers to petition for exclusions from the tariffs. For many partners, this meant transforming the tariffs into tariff rate quotas—allowing steel and aluminum imports to enter the U.S. market duty free or at preceding tariff rates up to a specific quantity, after which the 25% and 10% tariff rates would apply. President Biden also tightened requirements on steel imports not “melted and poured” in North America to prevent circumvention of these trade enforcement measures. 

The February 10th proclamation raises the tariff rate on aluminum to 25% from 10%, resets the national exemptions and accommodations and terminates exclusions for U.S. importers going forward such that a 25% tariff binds universally on imports of these metals beginning March 12, 2025.  

Steel and aluminum manufacturing are critical to the U.S. industrial base for both economic and national security reasons. Both industries have been plagued by chronic global overcapacity and unfair trading practices that have pushed U.S. producers to the brink of financial inviability, most notably from heavily-subsidized and state-backed producers in China, India, Turkey, Iran, South Korea, Vietnam, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, and imports have been surging once again. The 2018 tariffs have been effective in preserving and expanding U.S. steel and aluminum manufacturing in the face of challenges to the global market, with little perceptible impact on inflation. These strategic and narrow tariffs should be distinguished from proposed blanket universal tariffs. 

Impact: Expanding coverage of existing steel and aluminum tariffs preserves a tool that has helped shore-up critical domestic metals manufacturing with likely minimal impacts on overall consumer price inflation.