Despite warnings from opponents and allies, a defiant President Trump chose to move ahead with his metal tariff plan. Trump signed an order to impose 25 percent tariffs on Steel imports and 10 percent tariffs on Aluminum imports.
According to a statement released by the White House, President Trump cited the U.S. Constitution which gives him the authority to impose such tariffs,
“Therefore, I, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, and section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended, do hereby proclaim”
The statements also say the U.S. Commerce Secretary will issue detailed guidelines on duties and exemptions in the next 10 days. The Secretary has been given the authority to provide relief where necessary,
“The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and such other senior Executive Branch officials as the Secretary deems appropriate, is hereby authorized to provide relief from the additional duties set forth in clause 2 of this proclamation for any aluminum article determined not to be produced in the United States in a sufficient and reasonably available amount or of a satisfactory quality and is also authorized to provide such relief based upon specific national security considerations. Such relief shall be provided for an aluminum article only after a request for exclusion is made by a directly affected party located in the United States. If the Secretary determines that a particular aluminum article should be excluded, the Secretary shall, upon publishing a notice of such determination in the Federal Register, notify Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the Department of Homeland Security concerning such article so that it will be excluded from the duties described in clause 2 of this proclamation. The Secretary shall consult with CBP to determine whether the HTSUS provisions created by the Annex to this proclamation should be modified in order to ensure the proper administration of such exclusion, and, if so, shall make such modification to the HTSUS through a notice in the Federal Register.” Similar statements were issued in Steel proclamation too.
As of now, the tariffs apply to all countries except for Canada and Mexico,
“In the exercise of these authorities, I have decided to adjust the imports of aluminum articles by imposing a 10 percent ad valorem tariff on aluminum articles, as defined below, imported from all countries except Canada and Mexico.”
The announcement was in line with President Trump’s previous statements and tweets including the exemption for Mexico and Canada. Though national security was cited in the case of Mexico and Canada, expect these tariffs to be part of the NAFTA negotiations as the President stated before.
