US President Donald Trump will double tariffs on most steel and aluminum imports starting Wednesday, the White House announced on Tuesday, intensifying the administration's ongoing trade battles.
The executive order increasing duties on both steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% is the latest escalation in Trump's trade wars.
The increase comes into effect at 12:01 a.m. (4:01 a.m. GMT).
The move is meant to "counter foreign countries that continue to offload low-priced, excess steel and aluminum in the US," the White House said.
Announcing the tariff hike last week to workers at a US Steel plant in Pennsylvania, Trump said the move will "further secure the [US] steel industry."
"Nobody's going to get around that," he said.
The order also said it will "eliminate the national security threat posed by imports of steel and aluminum articles and their derivative articles."
The tariff hike excludes imports from the United Kingdom, which will continue to face a 25% rate as part of a recent bilateral trade agreement.
Other key trading partners, including Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, are bracing for potential economic fallout, with EU officials warning of retaliatory measures.
Meanwhile, steel prices have risen 16% since Trump took office in mid-January, according to the government's Producer Price Index.
Mexico to ask US for tariff exclusion
Mexico will ask to be excluded from the United States' increased tariffs on steel, Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said late on Tuesday.
The double duty on imported steel, announced by US President Donald Trump, came into effect midnight on Wednesday.
"We will ask on Friday that Mexico be excluded from this measure just like the United Kingdom was," Ebrard said.
The economy minister called the levy as unfair, unsustainable and inconvenient pointing out that the US exports more steel to Mexico than it imports.
"It makes no sense to put a tariff on a product in which you have a surplus," Ebrard said.
Of its total exports, 80% go to the United States, its largest trading partner. making it especially vulnerable to Trump's trade wars.
