President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the US would impose steel import tariffs of 25%, the highest option available to him. The move led to sharp sell-offs on US markets and rebukes from several of the US’s major trading partners, including China, Canada and the European Union, the Financial Times reports.
According to Trump, he will sign an order imposing global tariffs of 25% on steel imports and 10% on aluminum as early as next week. The announcement came after months of heated discussions among White House advisers over the wisdom of taking action many see as provocative.
The S&P 500 fell 1.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.7% in the wake of the announcement, though shares in US steelmakers jumped. AK Steel closed up 9.5% and US Steel gained 5.8%.
“We’re going to build our steel industry back and we’re going to build our [aluminium] industry back,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll be signing [an order imposing tariffs] next week. And you’ll have protection for a long time in a while. You’ll have to regrow your industries, that’s all I’m asking.”
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