Donald Trumps plan to Make America Great Again, involved getting the world to pay for it. So he decided to implement a range of tarrifs. These were called Reciprocal Tarrifs, but they were far from reciprocal. Every country was hit with a minimum 10%, and for many it went far higher. Countries that had Free Trade agreements with the USA and no tarrifs, were still slugged with the 10% reciprocal tarrif.
Then Trump singaled out certain items, steel, aluminum and copper, and gave them a tarrif of 50%. The very things that the US requires for its manufacturing, were the things he was making more expensive for company’s to buy from overseas.
America produces about 75% of its steel needs, and only about 50% of its aluminum and copper requirements. Why would you tarrif a product that you can only source from overseas? These are products that the US deems critical to its National Security.
The auto industry is in disarray. They rely on steel and aluminum. For every million dollars worth that they import, its going to cost them an extra $500,000 to pay the tarrif. To recoup this the importers/manufacturers are going to increase their prices, and this ends up being passed on to consumers.
Meanwhile, the American government is going to be raking in money from these tarrifs. Sadly it will be the American people that will be paying.