By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States would implement stiff new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.
Trump said the new tariffs would go into effect next week. The president said he would impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports.
Trump said the treatment of U.S. steel and aluminum producers by other nations, especially China, has been “disgraceful”.
"And when it comes to a time when our country can't make aluminum and steel – and somebody said it before and I will tell you – you almost don't have much of a country, because without steel and aluminum, your country is not the same,” Trump said during the announcement.
"We need great steel makers, great aluminum makers for defense."
In response to the news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 500 points in afternoon trading, about a 2 percent decrease. Shares of Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel, the second-largest steel producer in the country, rose nearly 6 percent to $46.07.
Roughly 90 percent of aluminum used in American manufacturing is imported as well as one-third of steel. Industry groups believe it will be consumers who face the brunt of the tariffs because of increased prices for items like beer, cars and other objects built of or packaged in the metals.
“These proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports couldn’t come at a worse time,” said Cody Lusk, CEO of auto industry advocate the American International Automobile Dealers Association, in a statement Thursday.
“Auto sales have flattened in recent months, and manufacturers are not prepared to absorb a sharp increase in the cost to build cars and trucks in America. The burden of these tariffs, as always, will be passed on to the American consumer.”
Both Democrat and Republican politicians also criticized the announcement.
"Let's be clear: The President is proposing a massive tax increase on American families,” Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican, said in a statement shortly after Trump’s announcement.
“Protectionism is weak, not strong.”