LEILA FADEL, HOST:
President Donald Trump has announced more tariffs, this time on steel and aluminum.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Signing the order for the tariffs last night, Trump emphasized the sweeping nature of his new taxes on imports.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's 25% without exceptions or exemptions, and that's all countries, no matter where it comes from. All countries.
FADEL: NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here to explain what's going on. Good morning, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: So what are these tariffs, and how do they compare to what Trump imposed in his first term?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, American importers will now be paying a 25% tax on steel and aluminum. That makes these tariffs a lot like some you might remember him imposing during his first term, except this time, the aluminum rate is higher. It was 10% back then. In doing this, the administration has stressed they're trying to use these tariffs to stick it to China, which is the world's biggest steel exporter. Now, the U.S. doesn't actually get much steel or aluminum directly from China, but the White House argues that Chinese steel makes it into the U.S. by being sold through other countries.
FADEL: So you point out that China doesn't export much steel or aluminum to the U.S. What countries do export all that steel and aluminum?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, the U.S. gets by far the most of its aluminum imports from Canada, according to data compiled by Reuters, and on steel, Canada is also first. And there are other allies on that list, like Mexico and South Korea. You might notice that in all those countries I mentioned, Canada and Mexico feature prominently. Trump had recently threatened tariffs on them and then paused them at the last minute. Well, with this new announcement, he's putting tariffs on those two countries anyway, just not on all of their goods. And that gets to one really important thing about these tariffs - there are no exceptions to these, and that's different from Trump's tariffs last time around. It's also different from how Biden treated tariffs. Both of them had carve-outs on tariffs for some allies, but not now.
FADEL: I think the big question for so many Americans are what are these tariffs going to mean for the U.S. economy and for them?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, in the near term, this should be good for American steel and aluminum companies because tariffs raise the price of steel and aluminum, and they protect against some foreign competition. And markets seemed to think so yesterday. Shares of Alcoa, an American aluminum company, and U.S. Steel were both up. But that doesn't mean this is great for the rest of the economy.
I talked to Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He told me that industries that use those metals, like aircraft and auto manufacturing, also bridge construction - those could lose jobs.
GARY HUFBAUER: You lose jobs in the manufacturing sector when you put together the higher costs of inputs and the retaliation, which is sure to come like night follows day.
KURTZLEBEN: He's saying there that not only would prices be higher for steel and aluminum, but other countries are likely to hit back and tariff American exports, which will hurt these companies.
FADEL: Now, the president has talked about imposing still more tariffs this week. What has he said?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, it's unclear, but he's dribbled out a bit of information.
FADEL: OK.
KURTZLEBEN: He has said he'll be announcing what he calls reciprocal tariffs. The idea there seems to be that whatever tariff a foreign country has put on a U.S. good, he wants to impose it back in return. He also said yesterday that he'll be considering tariffs on cars, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors. But it was unclear whether those are separate from the reciprocal tariffs. And this is one constant feature of how Trump does tariff policy. There's often not an orderly rollout. We really just don't know what's coming until he says it.
FADEL: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben, thank you for your reporting.
KURTZLEBEN: Yeah, thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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