Turkey and China lose money, while the United States gains money.
In less than five months, the Trump administration has collected more than $1.4 billion in new revenue from steel and aluminum tariffs, according to a recent report prepared for members of Congress.
The Congressional Research Service estimated that, between March 23 and July 16, the U.S. reaped $1.1 billion and $344.2 million from levies on foreign steel and aluminum, respectively.
Those earnings are on the rise as trade negotiations with allies linger on and President Donald Trump moves to hike tariff rates on countries like Turkey. CRS says the new tariffs could reap the U.S. some $7.5 billion — $5.8 billion on steel and $1.7 billion on aluminum – based on last year’s import levels. In 2017, the U.S. imported $29 billion worth of steel products covered the tariffs and $17.4 billion worth of aluminum.
Maybe we’ll see the end of an era in which we send our own military vessels overseas to be scrapped and then buy back the scrap. The tariffs, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin notes, are meant as a temporary solution, they’re leverage to bring about a fairer trade deal. But meanwhile they’re also bringing in certain kinds of tangible benefits.
Leave a Reply