Trump shifts steel tariffs from raw materials to products like nails, staples, and cables

Imports of steel and aluminum into the United States have declined since the tariffs went into place, he said, but imports of products made with those metals had “significantly increased.” [...] As a result, [President Trump] said, the United States will expand its tariffs to cover products made of steel and aluminum — like nails, tacks, staples, cables, certain types of wire, and bumpers and other parts for cars and tractors — as of Feb. 8.

The New York Times reports that the cost of foreign-made steel products like nails, staples, and cables will go up next month as President Donald Trump moves to reconfigure his unsuccessful efforts to protect these industries from foreign competition. Up until now, the tariffs have applied to raw materials imported from foreign countries, a situation that has negatively impacted the American manufacturers that rely on these raw materials to produce goods in the US to then sell globally. Moving forward, foreign-made goods will instead be taxed, allowing American manufacturers to resume importing raw materials for their manufactured goods at conventional costs. 

Economists like Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, tell The New York Times that the failure of the initial approach and the resulting shift in tariff strategy represents a classic case of “cascading protectionism” that, according to textbook definitions of modern economic thinking...

Antonio Pacheco via Archinect - News http://bit.ly/2RxAyE2