President Trump announced this week the new tariffs on aluminum and steel that will affect countries such as Costa Rica.

A couple of weeks back, Commerce Department had released three recommendations relating steel and aluminum imports, yet this suggestions were not taken into consideration by President Trump and he provided his own alternatives. The final decision on the exact percentage that will be imposed as tax and how it will be implemented will be presented before April 11 but so far the President has mentioned a 25% for steel and 10% for aluminum.

According to information published by Bloomberg, local producers such as ArcelorMittal, Nucor Corp., AK Steel Holding Corp and U.S. Steel Corp., will benefit with the new rules; in fact these companies have insisted for a while now over necessary trade defenses against what they consider disloyal competition from China, Russia and South Korea.

The implementation of these new taxes is expected to help the industry within the United States recover.
Currently the biggest providers of steel for the United States are Mexico, Canada and Brazil, countries that will be considerably affected by the new tariffs.

Trump’s final decision marks the culmination of a nearly 11-month investigation into whether imports of steel and aluminum posed a threat to U.S. national security.

“The World Trade Organization has been a disaster for this country, it has been great for other countries but terrible for the United States”, stated Trump, and he continued, “When it comes to a time when our country can’t make aluminum and steel (…) you almost don’t have much of a country, because without steel and aluminum, your country is not the same, and we need it”.

Costa Rica’s exports of steel to the United States are very small in comparison to other countries, yet they have multiplied in the last years.