The Trump administration has collected more than $775 million so far from its metal import tariffs, as lawmakers from both parties blasted the duties and said the process for requests by companies for exclusions must improve.
The tariffs President Donald Trump imposed in March have generated $582 million from steel imports and $195 million from aluminum as of last week, and the combined total is expected to top $1 billion within the next six weeks, according to the Commerce Department.
While Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross defended the tariffs at a Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday as a necessary action to protect U.S. manufacturers that’s already brought about the re-opening of steel plants, senators criticized the duties as the wrong approach that draw harmful retaliation, hurt the American economy and businesses with higher costs.
“As you consider these tariffs, know that you are taxing American families, you are putting American jobs at risk, and you are destroying markets -- both foreign and domestic -- for American businesses of all types, sorts and sizes,” Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the panel’s chairman, told Ross.
Criticized Process
Senators also criticized the process for seeking product exclusions from the tariffs, which allow a refund of duties paid. The Commerce Department has been flooded with more than 22,500 requests, but only 44 percent have been posted so far and the department just announced its first rulings.
“America’s small businesses believe they are being held hostage in a bureaucratic twilight zone, waiting to see if they’re going to escape,” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the panel’s top Democrat, said during the hearing.
Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum in March on grounds of national security. He’s separately pursuing duties on billions of dollars in Chinese imports in response to allegations of intellectual property theft and unfair trade practices.
On Wednesday night, Trump said “One thing no one talks about are the money pouring into the treasury. These tariffs are billions and billions of dollars.”
Companies can win product exclusions from the metal tariffs after requests are posted online for 30 days for any objections if the needed raw material is not produced in the U.S. in a sufficient amount or quality, or for a specific national security reason.