WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Wednesday that tariffs imposed during the Trump administration “have in fact helped save American jobs in steel and aluminum industries.”
“What do we do with tariffs? We have to level the playing field,” Raimondo said at a White House briefing. “China’s actions are uncompetitive, coercive, underhanded — they’ve proven they’ll do whatever it takea.” In 2018, then President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminum from most countries, arguing that these protections were necessary for U.S. national security to maintain healthy domestic production.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; writing by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
