President Trump has announced plans to raise tariffs on a key globally used material, just days after accusing China of violating a trade agreement.
The agreement in question was a 90-day tariff truce reached earlier this month between the U.S. and China, following weeks of escalating tensions as both Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping imposed heavy taxes on each other’s imports.
Posting on Truth Social on May 30, the 78-year-old Republican claimed the Chinese economy was “in danger” due to new U.S. tariffs reaching as high as 145% on certain items. In response, China imposed retaliatory tariffs of up to 125% on American goods.
Trump added: “The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
Typically, Trump did not go into detail into how China ‘violated’ their truce, however, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer later claimed that they failed to remove non-tariff barriers on US imports as per the agreement.
The same day, President Trump visited Mon Valley Works-Irvin Plant – a steel factory in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania – to announce plans that his administration is going to double the tariffs placed on steel and aluminum from 25 percent to 50 percent.
“Today I have a major announcement,” he told the workers.
“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. Nobody’s going to get around that.
It’s not the first time President Donald Trump has visited steelworkers in Pennsylvania before, having done so during his presidential campaign in October (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“Nobody’s going to be able to steal your industry – at 25 percent they can sort of get over that fence, at 50 percent they can no longer get over the fence so congratulations to everybody.”
The price of steel products has increased roughly 16 percent since Trump became president, according to the government’s producer price index.
While addressing steelworkers, the POTUS said US Steel will stay an American company under a deal for Japan-based Nippon to invest in the steelmaker. Few details about the deal have been made public.
It comes in spite of Trump initially vowing to block the Japanese steelmaker’s bid to buy Pittsburgh-based US Steel. However, he changed course and announced an agreement last week for what he described as ‘partial ownership’ by Nippon.
It’s not clear if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalised or how ownership would be structured, although he stressed that US Steel would remain an American company.
