Trump says he will announce 25% steel and aluminum tariffs on Monday

CTV political commentator Evan Solomon reacts to U.S. President Trump setting to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports.

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will introduce new 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S., on top of existing metals duties, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.

Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on his way to the NFL Super Bowl in New Orleans, said he will announce the new metals tariffs on Monday.

He also said he will announce reciprocal tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday, to take effect almost immediately, applying them to all countries and matching the tariff rates levied by each country.

“And very simply, it’s, if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said of the reciprocal tariff plan.

A Canadian government source told Reuters that Ottawa would not react to Trump’s steel and aluminum tariff announcement until it has more information or sees a written order from Trump.

Trump also said that while the U.S. government would allow Japan’s Nippon Steel to invest in U.S. Steel, it would not allow this to become a majority stake.

“Tariffs are going to make it very successful again, and I think it has good management,” Trump said of U.S. Steel.

Nippon Steel declined to comment on the latest announcements from Trump.

Quota questions

Trump during his first term imposed tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum, but later granted several trading partners duty-free exemptions, including Canada, Mexico and Brazil.

Former president Joe Biden later negotiated duty-free quota arrangements with Britain, the European Union and Japan. It was not immediately clear from Trump’s announcement what will happen to those exemptions and quota arrangements.

Steel mill capacity usage jumped to levels above 80 per cent in 2019 after Trump’s initial tariffs, but has fallen since then as China’s global dominance of the sector has pushed down steel prices. A Missouri aluminum smelter revived by the tariffs was idled last year by Magnitude 7 Metals.

According to government and American Iron and Steel Institute data, the largest sources of U.S. steel imports are Canada, Brazil and Mexico, followed by South Korea and Vietnam.

By a large margin, hydro power-rich Canada is the largest supplier of primary aluminum metal to the United States, accounting for 79 per cent of total imports in the first 11 months of 2024. Mexico is a major supplier of aluminum scrap and aluminum alloy.

“The Trump administration is threatening to attack the aluminum and steel sectors - sectors where the United States depends largely (on others). Quebec exports 2.9 million tons of aluminum to them, that is, 60 per cent of their needs. Do they prefer to get supplies from China?,” Francois Legault, premier of Quebec - a major aluminum supplier, said on X.

“All this shows that we must begin to renegotiate our free trade agreement with the United States as soon as possible and not wait for the review planned for 2026. We must put an end to this uncertainty.”

Matching rates

Trump said he would hold a news conference on Tuesday or Wednesday to provide detailed information on the reciprocal tariff plan, adding that he first revealed on Friday that he was planning reciprocal tariffs to ensure “that we’re treated evenly with other countries.”

The new U.S. president has long complained about the EU’s 10 per cent tariffs on auto imports being much higher than the U.S. car rate of 2.5 per cent. He frequently states that Europe “won’t take our cars” but ships millions west across the Atlantic every year.

The U.S., however, enjoys a 25 per cent tariff on pickup trucks, a vital source of profits for Detroit automakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis' U.S. operations.

The U.S. trade-weighted average tariff rate is about 2.2 per cent, according to World Trade Organization data, compared to 12 per cent for India, 6.7 per cent for Brazil, 5.1 per cent for Vietnam and 2.7 per cent for European Union countries.

Border steps

In a separate Fox News interview, Trump said Canada’s and Mexico’s actions to secure their U.S. borders and halt the flow of drugs and migrants are insufficient ahead of a March 1 tariff deadline.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of 25 per cent on all Mexican and Canadian imports unless America’s two largest trading partners take stronger actions. He paused the tariffs until March 1 after some initial border security concessions from the two countries, with Mexico pledging to add 10,000 National Guard troops to its border and Canada deploying new technology and personnel and taking new anti-fentanyl steps.

Asked whether Mexico’s and Canada’s actions were good enough, Trump replied: “No, it’s not good enough,” Trump said. “Something has to happen, it’s not sustainable, and I’m changing it.”

Trump did not say what Canada and Mexico needed to do to avoid broad tariffs on March 1.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and David Lawder; Writing by David Lawder in Washington; Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and David Ljunggren; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Lincoln Feast.)