President Donald Trump said Friday that his 2018 steel tariffs came “just in time” to save the Pennsylvania steel industry while setting the stage for the historic investment deal he announced between Nippon and U.S. Steel.
Trump’s doubling of steel tariffs he announced Friday will now secure Nippon’s $14 billion investment moving forward.
Trump made remarks during his Friday speech from West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, carried live by Newsmax.
“In 2018, I imposed historic tariffs on foreign steel and the results were amazing. You wouldn’t have this plant right now if I didn’t put on 25 and 50% tariffs,” Trump said in his speech. “They were dumping steel, as you know, from China and from all over the world. … And it was bad steel. It was garbage, but it was steel and it was cheap as hell.
“And you wouldn’t have had any steel mills. … It was just in time. … In a few short years, domestic steel production surged by more than 10 million tons. Imports from your foreign competitors dropped by 24% almost immediately, and more than $15 billion of investment poured into American steel throughout the United States,” he added.
But then the Biden administration took over, granting “tens of thousands of job-killing tariff exemptions to your foreign competitors,” he said.
“So they were afraid to take down the tariffs that were imposed because it was so good for our country, so much money. But what they did do, think of this, they gave exemptions. And they were so broad and so deep … they allowed foreign competitors to come in and steal our industry, steal our jobs,” he said.
“It was then that we announced the crown jewel of our steel industry, U.S. Steel, was being sold into foreign hands with no protections for our great steelworkers. And I said, ‘There’s no way we’re going to let that happen,’” Trump said. “By the time I came into office, many feared that the Mon Valley would lose up to 3,000 steel jobs, that U.S. Steel would close. …
“But I promised the people of western Pennsylvania that I would never, ever let that happen,” he added. “So soon after initially taking office, I imposed powerful 25% tariffs on all foreign steel and ended each and every one of the Biden exemptions and exclusions.”
And on Friday, Trump’s raising of steel tariffs will secure Nippon’s investment in U.S. Steel, he said.
“We are going to be imposing a 25% increase. We’re going to bring it from 25% to 50% 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,” Trump said.
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