Friday, March 28, 2025
The Chamber this week drew attention to the broad and harmful impacts of the administration’s renewed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which took effect on March 12, with a state-by-state breakdown of where firms benefited from now-abolished tariff exclusions—and thus, where the rebooted tariffs will bite hardest.
Where the Duties Hit Hardest: The administration this month abolished the earlier tariff exclusions and related petition process, which in the first Trump administration had granted hundreds of thousands of firm-specific tariff exclusions. The Chamber’s analysis shows that firms based in Illinois were granted more than 65,000 exclusions and those in Texas more than 59,000. Firms based in California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan also all benefitted heavily from the exclusion process.
As the Chamber points out, tinplate for canned foods, tubular goods for oil and gas production, alloys used in heat exchangers were among the items frequently featured in the exclusion process. This was due to such products not being available domestically in sufficient quantities.
Retaliation Adds to the Sting: Canadian retaliation has targeted U.S. goods totaling roughly $20 billion, including $8 billion worth of steel products, $2 billion worth of aluminum products, and other U.S. goods worth $10 billion, including tools, computers and servers, display monitors, sport equipment, and cast-iron products.
The EU’s retaliation—to be launched in April—will target about $28 billion of U.S. exports of beef, poultry, motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter, and jeans. For sectors targeted with retaliatory duties, the pain is substantial. For example, U.S. spirits exports to Europe slumped by about 40% after the EU imposed retaliatory duties in response to U.S. metals tariffs during the first Trump administration. The U.S. spirits sector, which benefits hugely from exports, employs about 1.7 million American workers, according to a report by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
