One Ohio Democratic congressman is giving qualified support to President Donald Trump’s proposal for tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
The proposes adding 25 percent to the cost of imported steel and 10 percent to aluminum. Congressman Tim Ryan told NPR he favors targeted tariffs that penalize specific countries for unlawful trade practices.
“Just in the last decade or so, we’ve lost five, six, seven, eight aluminum companies,” he says. “We can’t rely on Vladimir Putin’s steel, or even South Korea for that matter, to supply our own military. So, yes, there may be some economic arguments. Yes, maybe this is going to have an effect on the market. Lot of things do. But as the United States, we’ve got to have the capabilities of supplying our own military.”
Ryan says he hopes Trump will make the plan more sophisticated to strengthen the American steel industry.