President Donald Trump said on Friday that he doubled the tariff rate for steel to 50%, a dramatic increase that could further increase the prices for a metal for the production of accommodation, cars and other goods.
Trump spoke in the Montal Works -IWERK from US Steel in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh to discuss investments by the Japanese Nippon Steel.
The price of steel products has increased by around 16% since the government producer price index.
Trump said Us Steel would remain an American company as part of a Nippon contract in Japan to invest in the legendary American Steelmaker. Only a few details about the deal were published.
“We are here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will make sure that this American company remains an American company,” said Trump when he opened an event in one of US Steel camps near Pittsburgh. “You will remain an American company, you know, right?”
Trump said that doubling the tariffs on imported steel “the steel industry in the United States will continue to secure”, but such a dramatic increase could increase the prices even higher.
Employees, Trump supporters, local officials and others filled one of the massive warehouses on the site of the Irvin production to hear Trump. Huge American flags hung on the ceiling and a sign was: “The Golden Age”. Steel workers in orange hard hats and work clothes that were transferred, and part of the cement floor of the warehouse was filled with huge rolled coils with shiny steel sheet and used for devices, doors and other applications.
Although Trump initially swore to block the Japanese steel manufacturer’s offer for the purchase of US Steel in Pittsburgh, he changed the course and changedLast week announced an agreementFor what he described as “partial ownership” by Nippon. However, it is not clear that if the deal that helped his administration was completed or how the property would be structured.
Trump emphasized that the deal would keep American control over the famous company, which is regarded both as a political symbol and as an important matter for the country’s supply chain, industries such as car production and national security.
Trump, who has also wanted to announce new investments in the United States since the Weiße House was repeated, also tries to satisfy the voters, including the workers who called him to protect the US production.
Us Steel has not communicated any details about a redesigned deal with revised deal. Nippon Steel made an explanation in which the proposed “partnership” was approved, but also not announced any provisions of the agreement.
State and federal legislators who have been informed in this matter describe a deal in which Nippon buy us steel and output billions for US steel facilities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Minnesota. The company would be monitored by an executive suite and a board of directors that mainly consists of Americans and is protected by the Veto power of the US government in the form of a “golden share”.
In the absence of clear details or confirmations of the companies involved, the United Steelworkers Union, who has long rejected the deal, questioned this week whether the new agreement “every meaningful change” is made to the first proposal.
“Nippon consistently claimed that it would only invest in US steel facilities if the company had it directly,” said the union in a statement. “In the past few days we have seen nothing in the reporting that indicates that Nippon has decreased from this position.”
Union steel workers said that it was a split opinion about the acquisition of Nippon Steel, but this feeling had changed over time when they were more convinced that US steel would switch off their plants in Pittsburgh from the Pittsburgh region.
Clifford Hammonds, a line feed in the facility in which Trump spoke, at least said that the business would help improve the aging system and increase production.
“It brings money back into the plant to rebuild it because this plant is old and falls apart. We don’t produce as much as we should, because, as I said, this place is old. It falls apart. We need a kind of investment to repair the machines that we work,” said Hammonds.
Other members of the US steel union said that the recruitment of new employees were difficult due to the uncertainty of the Nippon Steel deal and the future of plants.
Regardless of the conditions, the problem for Trump has taken over the importance that repeatedly said last year that he would block the deal and the foreign property of US steel, as was the former President Joe Biden.
During the campaign, Trump promised to make the revival of American production a priority of his second term. And the fate of US -Stahl, once the world’s largest company, could become political liability for his republican party in the interim elections for his Republican Party in the Swing State of Pennsylvania and other battlefield states that depend on industrial production.
Trump said on Sunday that he would not approve the deal if US steel would not stay under US control and said he would keep his headquarters in Pittsburgh.
In an interview about fox The News Channel on Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Republican MP, Dan Meuser, described the arrangement “Strictly an investment, a strategic partnership in which the American is located, American Run and remains in America.”
However, Meuser said that he hadn’t seen the deal and “it is still structured”.
Republican Senator David of Pennsylvania Mccormick The plan as a “great” for the domestic steel industry, Pennsylvania, the employees of National Security and US Steel. He initially opposed the first proposal of Nippon Steel, US steel for $ 14.9 billion after it was announced at the end of 2023.
In the past few days, Trump and other American officials have started with the new commitment of Nippon Steel, 14 billion US dollars for his bid of 14.9 billion US
The other Senator of Pennsylvania, Democrat John Fetterman, who lives from US -Stahl blast furnace on the other side of the street, did not expressly support the new proposal. But he said that he contributed to hiding Nippon Steels’s original offer until Nippon had put an additional $ 14 billion.
Governor Josh Shapiro, a democrat who was seen as a potential presidential candidate, had avoided a public to be received, said this week that he was “careful”.
Chris Kelly, the mayor of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, where the Irvin -finish plant from US Steel is located, said that despite the lack of details, he was “enthusiastic” about the deal. He said it would save thousands of jobs for his community.
This story was originally on Fortune.com