The US will impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports next week, President Donald Trump has announced.

"We're gonna build our steel industry back. We're gonna build our aluminum industry back," Trump said in a White House listening session with industry executives on Thursday. He cited the success of the recently imposed tariffs on solar panels and washing machines.

"I don't blame other countries" for taking advantage of bad trade deals made by the US, Trump said.

Executives have complained about "capital depletion" and pushed the need for a "level playing field" with foreign competitors.

"What's been allowed to go on for decades is disgraceful," Trump said, adding that without being able to make aluminum and steel, "you almost don't have much of a country," especially the defense industry.

The increase of tariffs comes amid US having demanded to negotiate NAFTA, its treaty with neighboring Canada and Mexico, to make it more favorable to America. Trump has been also attacking the World Trade Organization recently as WTO head warned about the dangers of 'trade wars.'

Industries that rely on steel have been opposed to tariffs, pointing out that they would result in higher prices. The economist network Econofact has argued that the loss of jobs in the steel industry was not related to Chinese imports but increases in productivity and automation, Reuters reports. This would mean that tariffs would not result in major job gains, while about two million jobs in industries that rely on steel might be adversely affected, the economists said.

i'm so happy that the republicans are finally admitting what
a mistake they made 35 years ago in LOWERING tariffs already
in place on the steel industry...back then they cried "we need
a level playing field to compete with the Japanese and their
new technology (continuous caster method) or we'll be put out
of business"

So the savior, at that time Ronald Reagan, instituted
the wishes of Big Business elites and lowered those tariffs
resulting in the Japanese flooding the US with steel products
below market prices, well knowing it would break the back of
US produced steel....those were the 1st steps in the creation
of what is now known as the "Rust Belt"

i once heard that, if you live long enough everything will
"come full circle"...i believe it because i have lived it...

i'm gonna send a letter to Trump and ask him if this means i
can go back home and get my old job back working in the steel mill ??

The steel industry killed my hometown.
The Steel Car Company (built train cars) was bought out by Trinity Enterprises and then closed down.(my dad worked there 18 years)
CB&I (Chicago Bridge and Iron) then went belly up.
Werner's Factory closed (aluminum ladders).(My B-I-L worked there 16 years)
The Bessemer plant (train maintenace depot) closed down
and finally, the supplier Sharon Steel closed down.

In the 60s and early 70s my hometown had hotels, bars, restaurants, banks, gas stations, 5 schools, department stores and a bunch of mom & pop shops.
By 1979, it was a ghost town.

The people were destroyed and those that could moved away and never looked back.
Those that stayed turned to the bars.
I recently (7 years ago) tried to go home again.
Nearly all the young adult generations are drunks or strung out on drugs. Probably because their parents self destructed when their livelihoods were taken from them.
My hometown is now a shidhole.
Its sad but its what happens when the steel industry gets yanked away.

Demoncrats Reptilicans....its the same thing. They are both responsible for selling America OUT!

So glad we have an AMERICAN in the Whitehouse again!!!

TRUMP MAGA 2020!!!!!!!!

& coal

Yes, coal was a very big industry in my neck o the woods too.
Now they are fracking.
Problem is, fracking sites are more or less mobile sites that are self-contained. Not a community supporting industry.

What's sad about this news is that my hometown will not benefit from a renewed steel industry. All the factories and plants have gone to ruin. The whole community is in such a state of despair, no company in their right mind would place themselves there.
Environmental cleanup to meet current standards would be skyhigh costs before they can even lay a footer.

It is a start if we are also paying tariffs for selling to others

now, lets impose international tax on companies that are outsourcing potential american income to other countries

that along with the additional tariff those countries charge them for their products, should keep our products 'american' and our americans better employed

We don't mind a trade war

Please don't...i like my Canadian Mist @20 bucks a bottle..
lets try to work things out sensibly...K

Yes, the American steel workers will be the first to riot over a sudden Canadian whiskey shortage, rest will follow, we're more than buds and beers ....smoothe move Trump

Wait Jim Beam comes from Tennessee...soooo...how are Americans going to miss Canadian hootch?
;^)

MAGA 2020!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have seen several Machine Shops go out of business due to companies buying parts from China. I'm all for it to cost them more for out sourcing ....

Personally, I don't feel that the tariff is
high enough.

Jim Bean? hahaha good one mate! you should try that swill before shooting ya mouth off

Oh comon, Canadian alcohol is not that bad...I mean if theres nothing else!!! Just saying....you have a high regard for Canadian swill in America....maybe its not as awsome here as it is in the great white north?

rob that's cuz what they send down here is watered down to meet our alcohol content restrictions

It's not any better of worse... it's just way cheaper


LOL Eric, we wouldn't do that?

not by choice john. but i live close enough to the border i have seen first hand the difference. lol and some of your really good ales we can't get down here

China been ripping off US for years. They dump waste in Afghanistan and then Afghanistan dumps it into US. I say charges for imports and exports should have been uped years ago! Other countries think US is unintelligent.

And the previous people in charge in Washington has proved that, over and over.

if they go non union, they can make the prices lower to help get it going good again...