The Trump administration raised tariffs on global steel and aluminum imports to 25% on Wednesday as President Donald Trump and his administration delved into trade policies that have shaken financial markets.
US allies such as the European Union responded like criticism and mutual tariffs h. Earlier on Wednesday, the EU announced retaliation fees for US goods worth $28 billion imported into Europe, including boats, motorcycles and alcohol.
Trump announced tariffs last month, and the White House said Wednesday there were no exceptions.
“President Trump has once again used the world’s highest and largest leverage of the US economy to bring victory to the Americans,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.
The European Commission called the new US tariffs “unjust” and said taxation would begin on April 1 and additional measures would be introduced in mid-April.
While it looked surprising, investors sent stock futures high ahead of the release of their latest consumer price index report on Wednesday, major stock indexes have fallen sharply in recent weeks. The S&P 500 is down almost 9% from its height in February and is placed in the correction area.
President Trump has suggested he would like to negotiate a broader trade deal with the UK, but the UK has not escaped taxes. UK Secretary of Business and Commerce Jonathan Reynolds called taxation a “disappointment,” but said his country is negotiating a wider deal “with a focus on a practical approach.”
The European response reflects the response from another Canadian, a traditional close alliance and trading partner in America, where Trump had already imposed a 25% metal tax.
Canada, the top US export market, was expected to see new tariffs rise in a short time. Trump said Tuesday that the threat from Ontario Premier Doug Ford will jump to 50% in response to the threat of imposing a 25% extra charge on electricity imports to the US along with the first US hike.
The conversation between Ford and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hampered this, but Trump had shown that doubled Canadian US tariffs were no longer possible.
In a joint statement with Lutnick posted on X, Ford said he would discuss the update of the US-Canada Free Trade Act to meet with US trade representatives on Thursday.
In Monday’s Truth Social Post, Trump called Canada a longtime “tax abuser” and said beyond metals that “the US will no longer subsidize Canada,” and that “we don’t need your car, don’t need your energy, we’ll find it right away.”
Other longtime US allies were unable to escape either.
Australia wanted the same exemption from the steel and aluminum tariffs it received during the first Trump administration, but said it would not retaliate.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the tariff “completely unfair,” but added that the mutual tariffs they impose “will only boost prices for Australian consumers,” adding that Australia will not impose new tariffs on US goods.
China, the world’s largest steel producer and second-largest economy, accused the US of violating World Trade Organization rules, saying “all necessary measures” are needed to protect their rights and interests.
“No one won in the trade wars and tariff wars, a widely shared view of the international community,” Mao Zedong, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a media briefing.
China has already been slapped with a comprehensive 20% tariff when Trump took office, and has announced new tariffs in return.
