On Thursday, May 31, President Trump announced that he is “taking action to protect America’s national security from the effects of global oversupply of steel and aluminum” by imposing a 10% tariff on aluminum imports from some of our strongest allies and aluminum industry partners: Canada, Mexico and the European Union. The implementation of these tariffs follows “extensive discussions and a months-long process” after the initial proclamations in March. In an article posted on whitehouse.gov , the statement notes that “[the] President made it clear that the Administration was willing to work with those countries to find separate arrangements that would meet the national security requirements of the United States.” The statement goes on to read, “Current quantities and circumstances of steel and aluminum imports into the United States threaten to impair national security. These excessive imports are driven in large part by the worldwide glut from overproduction by other countries....
The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) has led the U.S. aluminum extrusion industry in achieving level competition by winning tariff protection that offsets unfair trade practices of extruders/importers of aluminum profiles produced in China. Our efforts have been of enormous value to domestic extruders and suppliers. Conservatively, an estimated 800 million pounds per year of extrusions are being produced in the U. S. that would have otherwise been lost to China.