President Donald Trump said that he will announce 25 percent tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum on Monday, and added that he could detail his plan to impose reciprocal tariffs the following day.
“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff — aluminum too,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday as he traveled to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.
Trump did not specify when those new duties would come into effect.
But Trump said the new duties would apply to all countries, including Canada and Mexico — who were exempted from steel and aluminum tariffs from the US when he signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement into law during his previous administration.
“Why are we protecting another country,” Trump said of Canada. “If we stop allowing them to make cars — through tariffs and other things: cars, trucks, etc., what they make — they’re not viable as a country.”
The U.S. maintains 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum for many countries, which the first Trump administration imposed in 2018 under Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act. Several trading partners negotiated to remove the duties.
“This is the next four years. Shifting goalposts and constant chaos, putting our economy at risk,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford shared on X Sunday evening.
Trump on Sunday also said that he would be imposing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners that would match the duties imposed by other countries in the coming days. He said those tariffs would be announced Tuesday or Wednesday, and would go into effect “almost immediately.”
“If they are charging us 130 percent and we’re charging them nothing. It’s not going to stay that way,” Trump said. “Every country will be reciprocal.”
Trump had reiterated the plan on Friday and suggested those duties would be imposed instead of an across-the-board tariff on all imports, a major reversal from his proposal on the campaign trail to levy a “baseline” tariff on all imports of between 10 and 20 percent.
The U.S. imposes the same tariffs for most countries, although the individual U.S. tariff rates vary depending on the product. Some tariff rates, like for cars, are low at only 2.5 percent. Other tariff rates, like for clothing and shoes, are typically higher.
