President Trump Expands Steel and Aluminum Tariffs to All Countries; Effective March 12, 2025

On February 10, 2025, President Trump issued two proclamations - Adjusting Imports of Aluminum into the United States and Adjusting Imports of Steel into the United States - modifying the steel and aluminum tariffs that he had originally imposed in 2018 under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The new action expands the original Section 232 tariffs by (i) ending all country exemptions, phasing out the specific product exclusion process, and terminating all existing General Approved Exclusions (GAEs); (ii) raising the aluminum tariffs from 10% to 25%; (iii) adding more downstream steel and aluminum products to the tariffs' coverage; (iv) and creating an exemption process for imported derivative articles made from steel "melted and poured" and aluminum "smelted and cast" in the United States.

The changes apply to products that are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on March 12, 2025. Trump has suggested he is open to discussing new national exemptions before then, but the likelihood of successfully negotiating new exemptions is unknown. If implemented, the tariffs will likely provoke retaliatory measures from other countries.

The existing Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum

Since 2018, the United States has maintained a 25% tariff on imports of steel (later expanding to certain steel derivative articles) and a 10% tariff on imports of aluminum (later expanding to certain aluminum derivative articles) under Section 232. The original tariffs imposed in 2018 only covered steel and aluminum. In 2020, Trump expanded the tariffs to cover certain derivative products including: for steel, nails and car body and bumper stampings; and, for aluminum, wires and car body and bumper stampings. Until now, the tariffs were subject to a product exclusion application process, as well as GAEs, which are product exclusions that received no previous objections.

Specific changes in the February 10 action

Raising the aluminum tariff from 10% to 25%

Trump's proclamation on aluminum increases the tariff rate on aluminum articles and derivative aluminum articles from 10% to 25% for all countries, except Russia. Imports of derivative aluminum articles from Russia, or those using primary aluminum (defined as new aluminum metal produced from alumina (or aluminum oxide) by the electrolytic Hall-Heroult process) smelted or cast in Russia, are subject to a 200% duty rate. The revised duty rates are "in addition to any other duties, fees, exactions, and charges applicable to such imported derivative aluminum articles."

Ending all current quotas, tariff-rate quotas, national exemptions, General Approved Exclusions, and phasing out the product-specific exclusions

Both proclamations terminate all current quotas, tariff-rate quotas, national exemptions, GAEs, and the product-specific exclusions application process. As a result, the Secretary of Commerce is directed to not consider or renew any product exclusion requests in effect as of 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 10, 2025, and to rescind the product exclusion process. Granted specific product exclusions will remain effective until either their expiration date or the specified excluded product volume is imported, whichever comes first. The GAEs will terminate on March 12, 2025 (for the lists of GAEs, see Supplements No. 2 and No. 3 of 15 C.F.R. part 705). The Department of Commerce will issue Federal Register notices to provide further guidance on these changes.

Various countries had also negotiated alternatives to the tariffs, a practice that accelerated under the Biden administration. The US government had negotiated exceptions, quotas, and tariff-rate quotas for many major trading partners: Brazil and South Korea have quotas for steel; Argentina has quotas for steel and aluminum; Australia, Canada, and Mexico have exemptions for steel and aluminum subject to informal agreements to manage export volumes; Ukraine has a temporary exemption; and the EU countries, the United Kingdom, and Japan have tariff-rate quotas.

The proclamation on steel terminates existing exemptions on imports from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EU countries, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. Imports of steel articles and derivative steel articles from these economies will be subject to the existing 25% duty as of March 12, 2025.

The proclamation on aluminum terminates existing exemptions on imports from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EU countries, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Imports of aluminum articles and derivative aluminum articles from these economies will be subject to the new 25% duty as of March 12, 2025.

Expansion of tariffs to cover more derivative products

The proclamations extend the tariffs to additional steel and aluminum derivative articles, but the White House has not identified what articles are affected by the expansion. The proclamations refer to "additional derivative [steel and aluminum] articles covered by this proclamation, as set out in Annex I to this proclamation," which will be subject to the duties. Neither proclamation originally circulated by the White House included an Annex I, though the steel proclamation referenced concerns with increased imports of "products such as fabricated structural steel, prestressed concrete strand, and others." The aluminum proclamation only notes that "imports of additional derivative aluminum products have increased significantly." The annexes will likely be included when the presidential proclamations are formally published in the Federal Register.

The proclamations also create a new process at the Department of Commerce to expand the coverage of the tariffs to apply to more downstream products. Within 90 days, the Secretary of Commerce must create a process to add more types of derivative steel and aluminum articles to the list of those subject to the duties. This process will allow producers or industry groups to request the inclusion of additional products if they can demonstrate that increased imports of such products threaten national security or undermine the goals of the Secretary's January 11, 2018 report or any related proclamation. Once a request is received, there is a 60-day timeline for the Secretary of Commerce to decide whether to add the products.

Limited exclusion of derivative articles produced from steel "melted and poured" and aluminum "smelted and cast" in the United States

The proclamations contain a new exclusion from the tariffs for imports of covered steel and aluminum derivative articles that were processed outside the United States using inputs that were, respectively, "melted and poured" or "smelted and cast" in the United States. To implement this exemption, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will have to issued more detailed guidance on how importers should document supply chains.

The new exception is similar to (but narrower than) a system established for imports from Mexico in 2024. In July 2024, the United States narrowed Mexico's exemption from the tariff, seeking to prevent transshipment of tariffed substrate materials to the United States through Mexican manufacturers. The system required that steel be melted and poured in Mexico, the United States, or Canada to be eligible for the tariff exemption. For Mexican aluminum products, the modification required the primary country of smelt, secondary country of smelt, or country of most recent cast of the primary aluminum may not be China, Russia, Belarus, or Iran.

Background on Section 232 tariff actions

Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows the president to impose import restrictions if the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) determines that an import threatens to impair national security. Before the steel and aluminum tariff actions, no US president had imposed import restrictions through Section 232 since the 1980s. The Trump administration conducted six other investigations (automobiles and certain automotive parts, uranium ore, titanium sponge, grain-oriented electrical steel for transformers, mobile cranes, and vanadium), but declined to apply import restrictions in any of those cases.

The Biden administration conducted only one Section 232 investigation, into neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnets (NdFeB permanent magnets). The investigation determined imports threatened national security but did not recommend global import restrictions. The Biden administration ultimately chose to raise tariffs on Chinese NdFeB and other permanent magnets through Section 301 tariffs instead, including them in the September 2024 Section 301 tariff expansion.

When signing the steel and aluminum tariff expansions on February 10, Trump said he is also considering new product-specific tariffs on automotive products, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and potentially other products.

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We provide below a list of partners and senior attorneys within the Global International Trade Practice of White & Case. Please contact any of them with questions about this report or other trade issues.

• Washington, DC: David Bond (Partner); Ryan Brady (Partner); Cristina Brayton-Lewis (Partner); Jay Campbell (Partner); Nicole Erb (Partner); Farhad Jalinous (Partner); David Lim (Partner); Gregory Spak (Partner)
• Mexico: Francisco de Rosenzweig (Partner); Carlos Vejar (Local Partner)
• Brussels: James Killick (Partner); Sara Nordin (Partner)
• Geneva: Jasper Wauters (Partner); Charles Julien (Partner)
• London: Chris Thomas (Counsel); Ed Pearson (Senior Associate)
• Paris: Orion Berg (Partner)
• Tokyo: William Moran (Partner)
• Dubai: Marcus Sohlberg (Counsel)

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