President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will be raising steel tariffs from 25 percent to 50 percent next week.
Speaking in Pittsburgh to a crowd of steelworkers, Trump said he was doubling the steel tariffs to bolster the American steel industry, without going into specifics on implementation.
“We are going to be imposing a 25 percent increase, we’re going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States,” Trump said.
“Nobody’s gonna get around that. So we’re bringing it up from 25 percent, we’re doubling it to 50 percent.”
Trump held the rally in Pittsburgh to celebrate Japanese company Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel, a famous American steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh.
Former President Biden and Trump both previously opposed the contentious Nippon Steel takeover, but Trump recently changed his mind and announced a “partnership” between the two companies. He said the deal would add $14 billion of output to the U.S. economy and create 70,000 jobs.
“This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy,” Trump posted on Truth Social last week.
“The bulk of that Investment will occur in the next 14 months. This is the largest Investment in the History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. My Tariff Policies will ensure that Steel will once again be, forever, MADE IN AMERICA.”
Trump’s tariff announcement comes on the heels of two court rulings earlier this week blocking him from imposing tariffs unilaterally through an emergency law passed in 1977.
The Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday that Trump could not impose his sweeping global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, a law that grants the president the power to take crisis actions such as sanctions or embargoes to mitigate foreign threats.
The three-judge panel found many of Trump’s tariffs to be unlawful, a decision the president and his administration strongly criticized for getting in the way of his economic agenda. Trump and his allies believe tariffs are necessary to end decades of unfair trade practices against the U.S. and to rebuild American manufacturing. Most economists and financial analysts believe Trump’s tariffs will raise prices by taxing business and consumers, while harming economic growth.
The Trump administration immediately appealed the ruling, and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit halted it for the time being.
“The ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade is so wrong, and so political! Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY. Backroom ‘hustlers’ must not be allowed to destroy our Nation!” the president said in a rant on Truth Social.
Separately, a D.C. federal judge ruled Thursday that Trump could not use the IEEPA to impose his tariffs on two Illinois-based companies impacted by them. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras stayed his ruling for 14 days to give the government a chance to appeal in the meantime. His decision could open the floodgates to litigation from other companies affected by Trump’s worldwide tariffs.