In an effort to protect American producers, President Donald Trump said he will impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports to the United States. The decision drew criticism from GOP lawmakers and resulted in the Dow dropping more than 400 points.
"We're going to build our steel industry back and we're going to build our aluminum industry back," Trump said Thursday during a listening session with aluminum and steel industry representatives. He told reporters that the tariff would be 25 percent for steel imports and 10 percent for aluminum imports beginning as early as next week.
Senators and Congressmen in the president's own party criticized the move as harmful to consumers, who will have to spend more on products made with American-produced aluminum and steel. Senator Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate finance committee said, whoever advised Trump on the decision "ought to be reprimanded" and that the move is "not going to help America."
Our Steel and Aluminum industries (and many others) have been decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy with countries from around the world. We must not let our country, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer. We want free, fair and SMART TRADE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2018
"New, huge tariffs on all kinds of imported steel is a big mistake that will increase costs on American consumers, cost our country jobs, and invite retaliation from other countries," Republican Senator Pat Toomey told NBC News.
The president tweeted about steel and aluminum Thursday morning. "Our Steel and Aluminum industries (and many others) have been decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy with countries from around the world. We must not let our country, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer. We want free, fair and SMART TRADE!"
The decision was mired in turmoil and a White House aide told CNBC the process was "a mess." After the announcement, some critics said the president may have ignited a trade war.
"This is the first shot across the bow over a trade war...And nobody wins a trade war." Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR, told CNN Money.
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