SMU Data and Models
March 13, 2018
SMU Market Trends: Tariffs to Hurt Manufacturing
Written by Tim Triplett
President Trump’s 25 percent tariff on steel from countries around the world comes at what cost? The trade action by the Trump administration is unpopular among the majority of the executives who responded to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire last week just before the president announced the tariffs, as expected.
Nearly seven out of 10 respondents (68 percent) agreed that the tariff will raise steel prices at the expense of U.S. manufacturing. Another 13 percent believe it will start an unwanted trade war. About 8 percent say it does nothing to address the overcapacity of steel production around the world, which is the root cause of the unfairly traded imports that get dumped into the United States.
