The Trump administration will soon ensure that its 50% steel tariffs, which have threatened to make everything containing steel more expensive, will apply to your next fridge or dishwasher.
The Commerce Department, in a notice set to be published in the federal register Monday, said the recently increased steel tariffs would also apply to consumer appliances that contain steel. Those so-called derivative products will be taxed an additional 50% for the amount of steel they contain, starting on June 23.
Those products will include refrigerators, dryers, washing machines, dishwashers, freezers, ovens, garbage disposals and wire racks.
President Donald Trump’s broader tariffs have increased costs for some American manufacturers. Many parts and components are subject to Trump’s tariffs, because they have no American-made alternatives – or the alternatives are more expensive than foreign products. And American appliance makers have griped about how competitors can effectively skirt those same tariffs by shipping completed products that aren’t subject to the 50% levies.
That’s why the administration announced its so-called inclusion process aimed at preventing foreign competitors from getting around those tariffs. In theory, tariffs on imported appliances will make American-made dryers, ovens and other appliances more competitive compared with foreign equivalents, which are often made with relatively inexpensive parts and cheaper labor.
At a US Steel facility in Pennsylvania two weeks ago, Trump announced he would set tariffs on steel imported into the United States at 50%, double their previous rate. He said some companies were skirting the tariffs when they were set at 25%, but he doubted anyone would be able to avoid them after he doubled the rate.
Trump praised his tariffs for saving the US steel industry, claiming American steelmaking would have disappeared if he hadn’t acted to impose tariffs. He said all steel would have been foreign-made and factories would have closed.
Although tariffs may have given the moribund American steel business a much-needed boost, they could raise prices on a key ingredient for American construction and manufacturing – two industries Trump has said he wants to support. Spot prices for domestically sourced steel have increased since the announcement of the 25% tariff in March, as American producers haven’t had to worry about as much competition from foreign steel.
When Trump imposed some steel tariffs in his first term, US production expanded modestly, but it sent costs rising for cars, tools and machines and, in 2021, shrank those industries’ output by more than $3 billion, the International Trade Commission found in a 2023 analysis.
Trump in his first term placed 20% to 50% tariffs on imported washing machines, a levy that American manufacturer Whirlpool initially praised. But the company lamented Trump’s steel tariffs, bemoaning the hundreds of millions of dollars in higher costs to make its products. That ultimately hiked the price of an average washing machines by around $90 and created just 1,800 American jobs, total, according to the Federal Reserve and the University of Chicago.
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