WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump said he plans to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which would be one of his toughest actions yet to implement a hawkish trade agenda that risks antagonizing friends and foes alike.
Trump, during a meeting with steel executives Thursday in the White House, said he plans to announce tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum from all countries.
"We'll be imposing tariffs on steel imports" and "on aluminum imports," Trump said during the meeting. "Some time next week we'll be signing it in. And you're going to have protection for the first time in a long time."
One person close to the president earlier said the details of the decision may still change, and it's possible some countries may be granted exemptions.
"Our Steel and Aluminum industries (and many others) have been decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy with countries from around the world," Trump said in a Twitter posting Thursday. "We must not let our country, companies and workers be taken advantage of any longer. We want free, fair and SMART TRADE!"
The decision is a defeat for the auto industry, which had been urging the president not to follow through on recent Commerce Department recommendations to limit steel and aluminum imports, arguing that measures intended to shore up U.S. material producers would end up undermining the competitiveness of the domestic auto industry.
The Detroit 3 say the proposed combination of tariffs and quotas would raise their costs, even though most of the raw materials are obtained in the U.S., while suppliers say they must rely on imports for specialty products and should be exempted from the proposed limits.
"We are concerned with the unintended consequences the proposals would have, particularly that it will lead to higher prices for steel and aluminum here in the United States compared to the price paid by our global competitors," the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents Fiat Chrysler, Ford Motor Co., and General Motors, said in a statement before Trump's decision.
Steel and aluminum users can seek exclusions from the tariffs and quotas if they can make the case that there isn't enough U.S. production capacity or the right product to meet their needs. But the supplier industry says it doesn't want individual companies to have to go through a burdensome government process and face interruption to their supply chains, especially with specialty materials and components.