WASHINGTON — President Trump this week hit foreign steel and aluminum with a 25% tariff, something that he did during his first term as president.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the move could provide a positive outcome for American producers. “It was done during his first term and didn’t raise prices, at least not enough to increase inflation, because inflation didn’t go up until Biden got in office. Common sense would tell me it would drive up the price, but since it didn’t in the first Trump administration, I don’t think I can be intellectually dishonest except maybe to say I just don’t know, but I do know from the first term it didn’t.”
Grassley says he’s more of a “free and fair” trader who used to be in the majority thinking that way, but is now in the minority. “There’s been a real trend toward protectionism, and this is part of it, and Trump was elected. So maybe I ought to take the view that maybe for the last 50 years, I could be wrong, and if Trump’s right, I’m going to praise him, if he’s wrong, then I’m going to say I told you so.”
Tariffs during the first Trump administration did take a toll last time as relations with key allies soured and drove up costs for downstream US producers that buy steel and aluminum and use them to manufacture goods.
