Intended to protect and grow the U.S. economy by providing a counterweight against foreign producers of aluminum and steel, the introduction of tariffs by the Trump administration may well achieve the opposite by disrupting those firms, industries, and states whose production relies on steel and aluminum imports.
While major trade partners such as the European Union, Brazil and South Korea were exempted from the tariffs, this decision could expose a broader segment of the U.S. economy to trade disruptions, especially if large non-exempted countries like China and Turkey respond with their own retaliatory tariffs on American exports.
Read more about the economic impact of steel and aluminum tariffs here.
– Joseph Parilla, Fellow, and Max Bouchet, Senior research assistant, Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program