WASHINGTON: The United States has broadened the reach of its steel and aluminum tariffs, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday, impacting hundreds more products that contain both metals such as child seats, tableware and heavy equipment.
The Bureau of Industry and Security said in a recent notice that it was adding 407 product types to a list of items considered steel and aluminum “derivative products.”
This means a 50-percent tariff on both metals, imposed by US President Donald Trump earlier in the year, will apply to their steel and aluminum content.
The widened scope took effect on Monday, and the notice detailing the changes was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday.
“Today’s action covers wind turbines and their parts and components, mobile cranes, bulldozers and other heavy equipment, railcars, furniture, compressors and pumps, and hundreds of other products,” said the Commerce Department on Tuesday.
The move “shuts down avenues for circumvention,” Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Jeffrey Kessler said, reiterating the aim of boosting US steel and aluminum industries.
Since returning to the presidency, Trump has imposed a 10-percent tariff on almost all US trading partners, alongside varying steeper levels on dozens of economies such as the European Union and Japan.
Certain sectors have been spared from these countrywide tariff levels but instead were targeted under different authorities by even higher duties.
In the case of steel and aluminum, Trump initially unveiled a 25-percent tariff on imports of both metals before doubling this to 50 percent in June.
Though the impact of Trump’s tariffs on consumer prices has been limited so far, economists warn that their full effects are yet to be seen.
For now, some businesses have coped by bringing forward purchases of products they expected will encounter tariffs. Others have passed on additional costs to their consumers, or absorbed a part of the fresh tariff burden.
But analysts note that importers and retailers will unlikely be able to eat these costs indefinitely, and could eventually raise more consumer prices.
Some economists argue that the inflation hit will be one-off, but others are wary of more persistent effects.
The latest Commerce Department additions came after a window for the public to submit product inclusion requests.
