President Trump issued separate presidential proclamations to increase tariffs to 25 percent on all US steel imports and raise tariffs from 10 to 25 percent on all aluminum imports effective February 11, 2025. The White House metal tariff fact sheet is here. Many Mises Wire writers in recent months have clearly written that the Trump tariffs are tantamount to a tax on every day American consumers.
Aluminum and steel are required for our modern society to function. One unintended consequence of the Trump authorized tariff increase is market prices paid for recycled (scrap) aluminum and steel are rising. This is caused by the increase in demand for domestically-sourced aluminum and steel. Prices for these two imported metals increased by 25 percent.
Another unforeseen consequence is the price for many grades of steel used in crude oil and natural gas production equipment and the pipeline industry will increase leading to higher fuel prices downstream.
The simple solution to solve the recent increase in aluminum and steel scrap prices is President Trump rescinding the proclamation authorizing the tariff increases on imported aluminum and steel which would bring reality and not chaos to part of the US scrap metal market. This federal government market intervention of increasing imported metal tariffs is a reminder that history repeats itself with unintended consequences. When will federal government policymakers choose to learn from their past policy lunacy?
Yes, that is a very cogent question1 I don’t think the state can ever learn to make economic policy that makes sense and does what the ijits in the state want it to do. They are lousy at picking and choosing winners and have an uncanny track record of choosing losers. And, to top that off, the policies rarely seem to accomplish what they are aiming to accomplish, often times accomplishing just the opposite of that they say they want to do. Just getting the state out of the economy would be the best policy, but, then again, the whole purpose of the state is to redistribute wealth away from you to them.