United States President Donald Trump has threatened to hike tariffs on key metal imports. Increasing taxation on imported goods has been a cornerstone of the Trump legacy.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said he planned to impose new 25% levies on all steel and aluminum brought into the country. More details will be revealed on Monday. “Any steel coming into the US is going to have a 25% tariff,” the US president stated, adding that aluminum will also be included and that the new measure would affect “everybody.” Trump indicated that the new tariffs will be placed on top of U.S. existing metals duties.
The US is one of the largest consumers of steel and the second biggest steel importer in the world. It sources the metal globally, although its largest suppliers are Canada, Brazil, and Mexico, followed by South Korea and Vietnam, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Canada is also the largest supplier of US aluminum, roughly half of which is imported. Mexico is among key U.S. suppliers of aluminum scrap and alloy.
During Trump’s first term in office, he introduced 25% tariffs on US steel imports and 10% on aluminum, although he later granted tariff-free quotas to key trading partners, including Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. –RT
Since his inauguration last month, Trump has placed 25% levies on all imports from Mexico and Canada and 10% on imports from China, citing concerns over illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
These costs are going to be passed on to the consumer, and eventually, the end user will start to feel the pinch. This is because tariffs raise prices by lowering the supply of goods available to domestic buyers. This effect cannot be reversed by domestic producers as it involves siphoning domestic resources away from whatever they have been producing before. At best, the shortages can be moved, not eliminated.
Tariffs Will Not Make America Great Again
Tariffs are import taxes, no matter how justification is attempted, and as such, are arguably one of the worst tools for helping domestic workers, small businesses, and everyone else in middle America who has been getting ripped off under our current political system. Trump and his team claim they want to put Americans first and “make America great again,” however, increased taxes benefit only the ruling class.
Even the central bank, a necessary piece of the control structure, has said that tariffs are taxes and will cost the U.S. jobs and punish the slave class with increased prices.
Federal Reserve Economists: Tariffs Hurt Manufacturing & Cost The U.S. Jobs
It’s always those lowest on the earnings scale that bear the brunt of policies that involve increasing taxation of any kind (and yes, that goes for the “tax the rich” scam.)
If we ever want to be free, truly free, and not just offered the illusion of it, the vast majority of the public had better start to realize that taxation is theft. The king decides how much he wants and takes it without consent.
The finite rules of economics cannot be eliminated by constantly using them to harm the consumer. The hope is that those
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