Customs duties of 25 % on steel and aluminum entering the United States announced on Monday by President Donald Trump will come to be combined at 25 % already imposed, but currently on break, on Mexican and Canadian products, confirmed This Wednesday, February 12, the White House at AFP.
If the customs duties imposed in Canada and Mexico, to encourage them to better control its border with the United States, become effective on March 1, the steel and aluminum produced by the two countries, among the first suppliers of American companies, will then be taxed at 50 % from March 12, the date of entry into force of customs duties on both metals, the same source said.
The American president signed two decrees on Monday evening establishing customs duties of 25 % on steel and aluminum as of March 12, “without exception or exemption”, using in a now concrete way the main lever of his policy economic against its business partners. Canada is the first victim, as the main supplier of steel and aluminum in the United States.
A “new golden age”
Donald Trump was elected at the end of 2024 by promising the Americans a “new golden age” and intends to reduce the American trade deficit which has widened $ 133 billion in 2024 to reach nearly $ 920 billion, i.e. An increase of 17 % over a year. The new rules will affect steel and aluminum wherever they come from, including economic partners who previously enjoyed exemptions on these two products: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Mexico, UE and United Kingdom. Japan, South Korea and Brazil are deprived of the exemption from which they benefited for steel and its derivatives.
In his argument, Donald Trump notably accuses some of the countries previously exempt from serving as a hub to re-speculate to the United States steel or aluminum from China. Beijing and Washington engage in fierce competition for global pre -eminence in all areas: economic, military, technological, commercial. “Chinese producers take advantage of the general exclusion of Mexico of customs duties to transport Chinese aluminum to the United States via Mexico,” he wrote.
During his first mandate (2017-2021), Donald Trump had already imposed customs duties of 2 5 % on steel and 10 % on aluminum. These measures were then partly lifted by himself or by his Democratic successor, Joe Biden.