Trump’s Tariff Plan Leaves Blue-Collar Winners and Losers<br />Leo W. Gerard, the president of the United Steelworkers union, which also represents aluminum workers, said his members were tired of enduring layoffs<br />because of an onslaught of artificially cheap steel and aluminum produced by “cheaters” in China.<br />“If the point is to protect American jobs, if the point is to protect small and medium-sized businesses, this is exactly the wrong way to do things.”<br />The mills and smelters that supply the raw material, and that would directly benefit from the tariffs, have been shrinking for years.<br />“You are likely to gain jobs in a few sectors, but lose them in others.”<br />President George W. Bush imposed tariffs of up to 30 percent on steel imports in 2002, intending them to last three years,<br />but lifted them earlier than expected after European trading partners threatened to retaliate.<br />The tariff on aluminum, prospectively 10 percent, would allow Mr. Bless to restart some production of high-purity<br />aluminum for military use at Century’s plant in Hawesville, Ky., which it partly shut three years ago, he said.<br />A tariff on imports also allows domestic steel and aluminum producers to charge higher prices, affecting manufacturers across the United States.<br />“We didn’t want to — and didn’t ask the administration to — alienate those countries<br />that don’t cheat,” Mr. Gerard said, citing Canada and European countries among the virtuous.
