Trump Administration Rolls Out Section 232 Tariffs On Steel And Aluminum Imports -

On March 8, 2018, President Trump exercised “his authority to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports” under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. U.S. Customs and Border Protection began collecting these tariffs on March 23, 2018. On March 22, 2018, the White House announced that application of the Section 232 tariffs on the following countries with a special security relationship with the United States would be suspended until May 1, 2018: Canada, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, South Korea, Brazil, and the European Union (on behalf of its member countries).

In the case of Canada and Mexico, application of the tariffs has been temporarily suspended due to the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with the President explaining that any permanent exclusion would need to be part of a final re-negotiated NAFTA deal. For the other listed countries, the tariff suspension is to allow for negotiations to find “satisfactory alternative means to address the threatened impairment to the national security by imports of steel [and aluminum] articles from those countries.”