Trump, Donald J

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    How Higher Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Will Affect Companies

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    Home builders, car manufacturers and can makers are among those that will see higher prices for materials. Those companies could charge customers more.President Trump has raised tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to 50 percent less than three months after imposing a 25 percent tariff on them. He said the move, made Wednesday, would help support U.S. steel companies, but many domestic businesses say that the latest increase would hurt them and raise prices for all Americans.U.S. home builders, car manufacturers, oil producers and can makers will be among the most affected. Many companies in those and other industries will likely pass on cost increases to their customers.“It means higher costs for consumers,” said Mary E. Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a research organization in Washington that tends to favor lower trade barriers.These are some of the industries that could feel the biggest effects from Mr. Trump’s latest tariffs.American Steel MakersIndustry groups representing domestic steel producers praised the steeper levies, which they said could spur investment and create jobs in the United States.Kevin Dempsey, the president and chief executive at the American Iron and Steel Institute, said the latest increase would help U.S. steel producers compete with China and other countries that have flooded the global market with metal. Mr. Dempsey said the industry had worried that the 25 percent tariff on steel imports alone was not sufficient.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump’s 50% Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Imports Go Into Effect

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    The president has ratcheted up the rate on foreign metals to 50 percent, double the previous rate, saying the levies weren’t high enough to help the U.S. industry.U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports doubled on Wednesday, as President Trump continued to ratchet up levies on foreign metals that he claims will help revitalize American steel mills and aluminum smelters.The White House called the increased tariffs, which rose to 50 percent from 25 percent just after midnight Eastern time, a matter of addressing “trade practices that undermine national security.” They were announced during Mr. Trump’s visit to a U.S. Steel mill last week, and appear to be aimed at currying favor with steelworkers and the steel industry, including those in swing states like Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel is based.The higher levies have already rankled close allies that sell metal to the United States, including Canada and Europe. They have also sent alarms to automakers, plane manufacturers, home builders, oil drillers and other companies that rely on buying metals.In an executive order, Mr. Trump said the higher tariffs would “more effectively counter foreign countries that continue to offload low-priced, excess steel and aluminum in the United States market and thereby undercut the competitiveness of the United States steel and aluminum industries.”Kevin Dempsey, the president of the American Iron and Steel Institute, an industry group, praised the move. He said China and other countries oversupplied the international market, making it harder for U.S. producers to compete.“Given these challenging international conditions that show no signs of improvement, this tariff action will help prevent new surges in imports that would injure American steel producers and their workers,” Mr. Dempsey said. More

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    Trump’s Tariffs Will Drag Down the Global Economy, OECD Says

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    Economic growth will slow this year and next as the trade war hampers development in the United States and around the world, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.President Trump’s trade war is expected to slow growth in the world’s leading economies, including the United States, this year and in the years to come, unless world leaders can resolve their differences over trade.The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development slashed its outlook for global output to 2.9 percent this year, from 3.3 percent in 2024, the organization said in its economic report released on Tuesday.Economic growth in the United States is expected to be particularly weak, the organization said, rising 1.6 percent this year, a drop from the 2.2 percent projected in March, and 1.5 percent in 2026, down from its previous estimate of 1.6 percent. The U.S. economy grew 2.8 percent in 2024.“Through to the end of 2024, the global economy showed real resilience,” said Mathias Cormann, the organization’s secretary general. “But the global economic environment has become significantly more challenging since.”In the first three months of the year, economic growth in the countries monitored by the organization, which is based in Paris, “dropped abruptly” to 0.1 percent from the last three months of 2024, which is “the slowest rate of growth since the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic some five years ago,” Mr. Cormann said.Since taking office, Mr. Trump has imposed tariffs, then halted them for several weeks, then reinstated some, in the hopes of winning new trade deals from once-close allies like Canada, Mexico and the European Union, as well as longtime rivals like China.The lack of certainty coming from that on-again, off-again strategy, combined with frequent changes in how high the tariffs will eventually be, has roiled markets and disrupted the flow of goods and services around the world. From January to March, many companies rushed goods to the United States, hoping to avoid the higher tariffs, many of which are now set to take effect in July.Even if the Trump administration increases tariffs on most of America’s trading partners by just 10 percent, it would shave 1.6 percent off economic growth in the country over two years, the report said. Growth on a global scale would contract nearly a full percentage point in the same period.Further pressure is coming from the need for leading economies, such as those in the European Union, to increase military spending while also investing in the transition to a green economy, the report said.The economies of the 20 countries using the common euro currency are projected to grow 1 percent in 2025 and 1.2 percent in 2026, in line with the O.E.C.D. forecast from March. China’s economy is expected to see 4.7 percent growth this year and 4.3 percent in 2026, down 0.1 percentage points from the organization’s spring projection.Economists in the organization urged countries to reach agreements on trade and to increase investment to revive economic growth.“Our key recommendation, to all governments, is to engage with each other to address issues in a global trading system cooperatively,” Mr. Cormann said. More

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    As Courts Call Tariffs Into Question, Trump Again Turns to His Favorite Tool

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    The president is set to raise tariffs on steel and aluminum this week, even as the courts are challenging the legitimacy of other levies.The legitimacy of President Trump’s tariffs is being questioned by U.S. courts, but the president is showing no signs of backing off his favorite tool.On Wednesday, the tariffs that Mr. Trump imposed on foreign steel and aluminum are set to double to 50 percent, a move that the president has said will better protect domestic metal makers.In the coming days, the U.S. government is set to face off with states and businesses that have sued over the president’s tariffs, and both sides will be required to submit more information as judges work toward final decisions on the legality of Mr. Trump’s steepest tariffs.Last Wednesday, the Court of International Trade ruled that some of the steep tariffs that Mr. Trump had imposed were illegal, a significant setback for the president’s agenda.Less than 24 hours later, a separate court temporarily paused that decision. As judges weigh that appeal, the tariffs in question — which include the levies Mr. Trump imposed on Canada, Mexico and China for what he said was their role in the fentanyl trade, as well as the global tariffs Mr. Trump announced, and then quickly paused, in April — are expected to remain in effect at least until June 9.On Sunday, one of Mr. Trump’s top trade advisers insisted that the president would continue to find ways to hit other countries with tariffs even after the trade court ruled against the defining element of Mr. Trump’s strategy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Officials Unveil Budget Cuts to Aid for Health, Housing and Research

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    The new blueprint shows that a vast array of education, health, housing and labor programs would be hit, including aid for college and cancer research.The Trump administration on Friday unveiled fuller details of its proposal to slash about $163 billion in federal spending next fiscal year, offering a more intricate glimpse into the vast array of education, health, housing and labor programs that would be hit by the deepest cuts.The many spending reductions throughout the roughly 1,220-page document and agency blueprints underscored President Trump’s desire to foster a vast transformation in Washington. His budget seeks to reduce the size of government and its reach into Americans lives, including services to the poor.The new proposal reaffirmed the president’s recommendation to set federal spending levels at their lowest in modern history, as the White House first sketched out in its initial submission to Congress transmitted in early May. But it offered new details about the ways in which Mr. Trump hoped to achieve the savings, and the many functions of government that could be affected as a result.The White House budget is not a matter of law. Ultimately, it is up to Congress to determine the budget, and in recent years it has routinely discarded many of the president’s proposals. Lawmakers are only starting to embark on the annual process, with government funding set to expire at the end of September.The updated budget reiterated the president’s pursuit of deep reductions for nearly every major federal agency, reserving its steepest cuts for foreign aid, medical research, tax enforcement and a slew of anti-poverty programs, including rental assistance. The White House restated its plan to seek a $33 billion cut at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, for example, and another $33 billion reduction at the Department of Health and Human Services.Targeting the Education Department, the president again put forward a roughly $12 billion cut, seeking to eliminate dozens of programs while unveiling new changes to Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Accuses China of Violating Trade Agreement

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    President Trump said that Beijing was not honoring the terms of a temporary agreement and warned of further confrontation.President Trump and his advisers on Friday leveled sharp attacks against China over trade, reviving an economic dispute that led to steep tariffs and a confrontation over critical next-generation technologies.In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump accused Beijing of violating the terms of a fragile truce struck earlier this month between the two countries that included rolling back tariffs and other trade barriers. The agreement was intended to give both sides time to reach a larger deal that would avert an all-out trade war.Mr. Trump’s accusations alluded to China’s promise to reduce export restrictions around rare earth minerals that are key components in many technology and military products. The president suggested that China had continued to limit access to those goods, as he appeared to adopt a more confrontational posture on trade.“So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” he proclaimed.Speaking to reporters later in the day, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, stressed that the president prefers cooperation. But, he warned, China’s behavior “opens up all manner of action for the United States.”The standoff between the two nations has created significant concern for businesses and investors, and has raised fears of a global economic downturn in recent months. Stocks were down slightly on Friday.The new dispute arrives at a moment of great uncertainty for Mr. Trump’s ability to brandish steep tariffs to force other countries to make trade concessions. A federal trade court earlier this week declared many of the president’s duties to be illegal, including some that he imposed on China on emergency grounds. An appeals court later restored that power temporarily until a panel of judges can hear the government’s arguments fighting the original ruling.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares119 Views

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    Trump Makes a New Push to ‘Decouple’ U.S. From China

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    Trump administration officials are getting a second chance to try to sever ties with China by starting a trade war, imposing export controls and revoking student visas.The Trump administration has threatened to revoke the visas of many of the 277,000 or so Chinese students in the United States and to subject future applicants from China, including Hong Kong, to extra scrutiny.Cargo ships laden with goods from China stopped coming into American ports earlier this spring as President Trump escalated his trade war against Beijing.And the Trump administration is suspending sales of some critical U.S. technologies to China, including those related to jet engines, semiconductors and certain chemicals and machinery. Taken together, the actions by the Trump administration amount to an aggressive campaign to “decouple” the United States from China, as it seeks to break the close commercial ties between the world’s two largest economies and toss away what had been the anchor of the relations between the nations for decades.Aggressive decoupling would bolster American security, from the perspective of Mr. Trump and his aides. And it would also accelerate a trend toward each power being entrenched in its own regional sphere of influence.Officials in the first Trump administration spoke of the need to decouple from China, with the view that economic and educational ties across many fields equated to a national security threat. But while the efforts reframed the relationship as one of competition rather than cooperation, the volume of trade remained high, even through the pandemic.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Tariff Ruling Gives Businesses Hope, but They’re Soon Unmoored Again

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    Companies welcomed a court decision striking down President Trump’s tariffs. Then a stay of that ruling left no one breathing easy.Emma Mcilroy’s apparel company, Wildfang, had been working overtime to move its production out of China in the months since President Trump launched his trade war. Finding another factory that could produce jumpsuits and button-downs — while every other U.S. importer was also jockeying for space — was a huge drain on the 11-person staff’s attention.But when Ms. Mcilroy saw on Wednesday night that a federal court had ruled most of Mr. Trump’s tariffs illegal, all of that work paused. Would the tariffs be gone when her next shipment arrived in August, or not?“I have absolutely no idea where it’s going. I am learning in real time how to run my business,” Ms. Mcilroy said Thursday. “Yesterday I would’ve told you, ‘Yes, absolutely, you’re going to see me manufacturing stuff in Vietnam.’ Today I’m not sure.”American businesses are rapidly digesting the latest twist in Mr. Trump’s roller-coaster trade war, which has made it impossible to plan more than a few weeks in advance. It’s particularly hard on industries that place their orders entire seasons ahead of time.The details of Wednesday’s decision seemed likely to bring relief. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that the Trump administration had acted illegally in using an emergency powers law to impose 30 percent tariffs on goods from China, 25 percent tariffs on most goods from Mexico and Canada, and 10 percent on everyone else. The court gave the White House 10 days to halt the new duties.Hours later, a higher court stayed the decision.If the initial ruling sticks, it will preclude the return of steeper “reciprocal” tariffs that Mr. Trump paused for 90 days in early April. It might even allow companies that have paid the emergency tariffs over the past several months to claim refunds, already an established process at Customs and Border Protection.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More