Trump continues to back aluminum and steel tariffs despite Republican fears

[masterpanthera_t]

I've heard that 70% of US steel usage comes from the US. And most of the rest comes from Canada. I am not sure if I'm mixing up the numbers for aluminum with steel here. Also, that whichever it is (aluminum and/or steel), we hardly import any of it from China. So from what I've heard, these tariffs don't really address the problem they claim to address (China's protection of its industries). I've also heard that the deterioration of the steel industry (in the 70s, IIRC), happened way before China really started becoming a manufacturing hub, and that it was the cause of automation (I don't necessarily believe this one way or another, it's just what I've heard).

I've also heard opposing views that this will help US workers (and based on a couple of posts in this thread), maybe that is happening.

However, one of the main issues with these tariffs are that they will hurt countries who are US allies (Canada, Germany), and not impact China much, if at all. And there's some speculation that this will be very detrimental to the US economy as a whole (mostly affecting all of us consumers of steel and aluminum), even if it helps some workers.

Having said all that, it remains to be seen what the overall effects are in the next 6 months to a year, but there is some cause for concern if "experts" are correct. Gary Cohn's resignation isn't really reassuring at the moment, but I will hope against hope that this decision ends up working out.