The US will implement sweeping tariffs on aluminium and steel imports on Monday, President Donald Trump revealed to reporters late on Sunday night.
Shortly after the announcement, the leader of the European Union’s largest steel-producing country, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said the trading bloc would respond almost immediately if the US follows through on its threat to slap the EU with 25 per cent tariffs. Speaking during a televised debate, Scholz bullishly told the crowd, “We can act as the European Union in an hour.”
On an Air Force One flight to watch the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Trump argued the latest escalation in tariffs on foreign goods was “so that we’re treated evenly with other countries.” In recent weeks, the US President has signposted the EU as one of the main targets of his trade policy, citing high tariffs placed by Brussels on American-made vehicles as an example of that unfairness.
It represents a key pillar of newly re-elected Trump’s approach to international trade, with the threat of making it more expensive for foreign countries to sell their products in the US being deployed as a bargaining chip. In recent weeks, the 78-year-old commander-in-chief had had some success with these protectionist policies, forcing Colombia to accept deportation flights and getting Canada and Mexico to dump more resources into ending the flow of migration and drugs across the border.
However, Chancellor Scholz’s threat of reciprocal tariffs does not seem to worry US policymakers. More trade tariffs are likely to come early this week in an attempt to balance trade deficits around the world. President Trump indicated that he would seek to mirror tariffs around the world already placed on American goods.
“If they charge us, we charge them… every country,” Trump said. He added: “If they are charging us 130 per cent and we’re charging them nothing, it’s not going to stay that way.”
It is unclear if these fresh tariffs will be placed on British exports to the US; however, when Trump slapped extra duties on foreign steel and aluminium in his first term, no exception was made for the UK. Under the Biden administration, these duties were eventually dropped.
These measures are hoped to help shore up US domestic steel production’s ability to compete against foreign producers. President Trump said of US Steel: “Tariffs are going to make it very successful again, and I think it has good management.”
The country most likely to see an immediate economic impact from the new 25 per cent levy on foreign steel and aluminium is Canada, which produced around 60 per cent of the aluminium used in US manufacturing in 2024. Meanwhile, China’s dominance in the steel sector could see some pushback, with Trump’s previous steel tariffs causing US production to spike to 80 per cent of capacity.
