US President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing to outline a tiered system for its broad tariffs on steel and aluminum products in an attempt to simplify a process that has dogged US companies for months.
The US would maintain 50 percent tariffs on a large number of derivative products in which the duty would be calculated by the value of the actual imported good, multiple people familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Many other products would be tariffed at a lower 25 percent rate, while some products would fall below that duty level.
Photo: Reuters
The announcement comes in response to immense pushback from US companies that have complained to the Trump administration that his widespread tariffs on products that contain steel and aluminum materials make it difficult to quickly calculate the appropriate charges on imports.
This difficulty, which buyers had brought to the attention of US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and others, threatened to hit company sales and profit, the people said.
US companies and officials had problems assigning duties to a large number of items — including consumer products such as dental floss, which has a small metal piece to cut the floss, but otherwise has no other measurable steel or aluminum, one of the people said.
If an item’s total steel or aluminum content drops below 15 percent of the product, the tariff rate would fall to zero, the people said.
The move comes as the Trump administration is dealing with voter discontent over the economy, fueled by worries over the cost of living. That dynamic threatens to undercut Republican efforts to retain control of the US Congress in midterm elections in November.
Even as the US Supreme Court struck down some of Trump’s country-by-country tariffs, he has taken steps to rebuild that trade regime and continue ahead on industry-specific levies.
Trump last year imposed a 50 percent levy on foreign steel and aluminum in a measure aimed at countering Chinese overcapacity. The decision wound up hitting other major trading partners hard, including Canada, the EU, Mexico and South Korea.
Later added to the list were so-called derivative products that contained the metals, creating an arduous task for companies to identify the percentage of the materials in goods they sourced from overseas.
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