President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs may not result in the intended boom for the U.S. steel industry. “If the automakers are using less metal, they’re selling less product because of these tariffs, eventually I think it’s going to hurt steel stocks,” said Patrick Sanders, Assistant Managing Editor at U.S. News & World Report. He pointed out that Bank of America has already downgraded U.S. Steel in light of Trump’s announcement. The tariffs could also hit employment numbers, said Sanders. “The last time that we had steel tariffs was in 2003. About 200,000 people lost their jobs. A lot of those were in the auto industry.” On Thursday, Trump stated he’d slap a 25 percent tax on steel imports and a 10 percent tarriff on aluminum imported into the U.S. Trump claimed the policy would benefit American industrials, tweeting, “We must protect our country and our workers. Our steel industry is in bad shape.”
