Donald Trump He had announced it a day before and fulfilled this Monday. He signed two executive orders to impose 25 % tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum in the United States.
“This is important, we are going to make the United States rich again,” Trump said from the Oval Office after making the order of tariff increase, tariff, According to review EFE.
The new tariffs will be applied globally without “exceptions or exemptions”, according to the statements of the president, cited by the report.
The Spanish medium points to Canada as the main affected by the measure, being the largest steel and aluminum exporter to the United States. Other countries that will feel the coup, due to the volume of their exports to the North American country are Mexico, South Korea, Brazil and Vietnam.
“This is important, we are going to make the United States again,” Trump said from the oval office, after making the order of tariff increase, which will affect Mexico, Canada and Brazil.https://t.co/z94xgluz3i
– Efe News (@Efenoticias) February 10, 2025
However, the CNN Point out That, although indirectly, tariffs are largely directed to China, a country with which Trump has intensified the commercial war.
The television station explains that although the United States matters very little steel directly from China – which is, by far, the largest steel producer in the world – “Chinese steel arrives in the United States second -hand. Part is bought by foreign countries and forwarded to the US and part is poorly labeled and deleted through several channels. ”
Reactions and negotiations
During his first term, Trump already imposed 25 % tariffs on steel imports and 10 % to those of aluminum, although he later granted exemptions to countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico.
Precisely Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the president of the United States accepted “to” consider “an exemption for his country during a telephone conversation sustained between them.
“I proposed an exception for Australia and we both agreed to say that the president of the United States agrees that an exemption is being considered in the interest of both countries,” said Albanese, aforementioned by EFE.
In 2024, Australia exported 223 thousand tons of steel to the United States and 83 thousand tons of aluminum, which would correspond to 1 % and 2 %, respectively, of total US imports, the Spanish medium refers from official data.
For his part, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry of Canada, François-Philippe Champagne, said that American tariffs are “totally unjustified”, and warned that his country’s response would be “clear and calibrated,” he says CNN.
“Canadian steel and aluminum support key industries in the US, from defense, naval construction, energy to automotive,” said Champagne, who added that Canada would consult with its international partners and examine the details of tariffs .
The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, He had previously said that would wait for Trump’s announcement to be formalized to negotiate or take some measure with “cold head” and “always respecting sovereignty.”
Trump already postponed, at least until the beginning of March, the tariffs he had announced before Mexican and Canadian products, and that generated a reciprocal response of those nations.
Trump at tariff war
As he did in his first term, Trump has turned the application of tariffs into one of his banners, and has even said that for him tariff is “the most beautiful word in the dictionary.”
Its insistence on the subject and the positive repercussions that these measures have for the United States from their point of view contrast with the warnings of experts on the consequences of engaging in a warfare for the United States economy and, in particular, the final consumers .
Last week, the Republican president imposed a 10 % tariff on all Chinese imports, which joined the existing taxes for the products of that country. In retaliation, Beijing also imposed tariffs on American products.
The commercial war does not seem to stop and this Sunday Trump revealed that in the coming weeks it would analyze the imposition of new tariffs on goods such as vehicles, semiconductors and pharmaceutical products.
In addition, he said that “probably this Tuesday or Wednesday” he would announce reciprocal tariffs to several countries to match those that apply to US exports.
Although the president did not specify which countries would be affected by these reciprocal tariffs, analysts point to allies such as European countries.
Trump has criticized the 10 % that the European Union imposes on imported cars, well above the 2.5 % that the United States applies.
