Trump weighs tariffs, quotas on U.S. steel, aluminium imports

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was considering a range of options to address steel and aluminium imports that he said were unfairly hurting U.S. producers, including tariffs and quotas.

Trump’s comments - his strongest signal in months that he will take at least some action to restrict imports of the two metals - came in a meeting with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators and representatives at the White House. Reporters were present for part of the meeting.

Some of the lawmakers urged him to act decisively to save steel and aluminium plants in their states, but others urged caution because higher prices would hurt downstream manufacturers that consume steel and aluminium.

Trump is weighing options presented last month by the U.S. Commerce Department in parallel “Section 232” investigations into whether import restrictions on steel and aluminium are needed to protect national security. The probes were authorized under a 1962 trade law that has not been invoked since 2001.

“What we’re talking about is tariffs and/or quotas,” Trump said to the group.

“Part of the options would be tariffs coming in. As they dump steel, they pay tariffs, substantial tariffs, which means the United States would actually make a lot of money.”

Trump said that the steel and aluminium industries were being “decimated by dumping” and talked about the empty steel mills he saw on the campaign trail in 2016.

“I look at it two ways: I want to keep prices down, but I also want to make sure that we have a steel industry and an aluminium industry, and we do need that for national defense,” Trump said.