According to news reports, Donald Trump met with a bipartisan group of US senators and representatives earlier today and discussed the range of options he is considering to address steel and aluminum imports within the Section 232 investigation.
Trump has until April 11 to make a decision on steel restrictions, in the form of tariffs and/or quotas. Some lawmakers urged him to act in favor of US steel producers in their states, while others urged caution that higher steel prices would hurt manufacturers.
“Part of the options would be tariffs coming in,” Trump said. “As they dump steel, they pay tariffs, substantial tariffs, which means the United States would actually make a lot of money.”
However, tariffs and duties assigned by the US Department of Commerce are paid by the US-based importer, not the foreign exporter, and those fees are added to the product before moving further down the supply chain. So while the US Treasury would indeed see a substantial influx in funds from Section 232 tariffs, US consumers will end up paying more for products using imported steel.
Trump also cited national security as part of his pending decision, as national security forms the basis of any Section 232 investigation.
“I want to keep prices down, but I also want to make sure that we have a steel industry and an aluminum industry, and we do need that for national defense,” Trump said. “If we ever have a conflict, we don't want to be buying the steel from a country that we're fighting, because somehow that doesn't work very well.”
The DOC has not publicly revealed its Section 232 recommendations, but Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said that Section 232 restrictions “can be applied in a much more surgical way” that could lead to tariffs on imports from certain countries and quotas from other nations suspected of transshipping products.
On Monday, 15 trade groups representing US manufacturers warned Trump that strong tariffs could have “unintended and disastrous consequences.”