Beginning February 10, 2025, President Trump has issued multiple proclamations that direct a number of actions to broaden and increase Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum and derivative products.
April 2, 2026 Presidential Proclamation
New! Effective April 6, 2026, tariffs on steel and aluminum and their derivative products are changing as below:
- A flat 50 percent tariff will be imposed on the full value of articles made entirely or almost entirely of aluminum or steel. Tariffs will no longer be imposed on just the metal content of goods also containing non-metal content.
- A flat 25 percent tariff will be imposed on the full value of derivative articles substantially made of steel or aluminum.
- Lower tariffs (25 percent on articles and 15 percent on derivative articles) will be imposed on goods in which at least 95 percent of the aluminum was smelted or most recently cast, or at least 95 percent of the steel was melted and poured, in the United Kingdom.
- A 15 percent tariff will be imposed through 2027 on certain metal-intensive industrial equipment and electrical grid equipment.
- Products made abroad but containing at least 95 percent U.S. melted and poured steel, or U.S. smelted and cast aluminum, will be subject to a 10 percent tariff.
- Products made of 15 percent or less by weight of steel or aluminum (except those classifiable in HTSUS Chapters 72, 73, 74, or 76) will no longer be subject to Section 232 metals tariffs.
Goods listed as articles or derivatives of more than one of these metals will only be subject to one of the tariff rates specified above (i.e., no tariff stacking).
ST&R offers a three-pronged approach for avoiding, mitigating, and/or recovering these and other tariffs. For more information on which of these strategies might be most effective for your business, please contact ST&R.
Affected Products
For goods classified under Chapters 73 and 76, the 232 tariff applies only to the value of the aluminum or steel content.
Base Metals CEE Lawsuit
On January 27, 2026, an importer filed a lawsuit against CBP at the US Court of International Trade challenging how the Base Metals Center for Expertise & Excellence calculates Section 232 duties for products made entirely of steel. Given this lawsuit, CBP is likely to suspend all current and future protests raising the same issue until the court resolves the case. To preserve their right to a refund of the challenged tariffs if the court rules against CBP, we recommend that importers of steel and aluminum file protests on this issue.
Adding Additional Articles to the Scope - Tariff Inclusions Process (Eliminated)
The process for soliciting public petitions to add new products to the scope of these tariffs has been eliminated as part of the April 2, 2026 Presidential Proclamation, though the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative may make such additions.
Previously, BIS had established a process for including additional derivative aluminum and steel articles within the scope of these tariffs. The first round of process yielded additional items being added to the scope on August 19, 2025 (as described in Affected Products above). The second round of the process opened September 15, 2025 and closed at 11:59 pm ET on September 29, 2025.
Previous Tariffs on Steel & Aluminum: June 1, 2018 - March 12, 2025
Additional tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel, and 10 percent on imported aluminum, were imposed effective June 1, 2018, with respect to nearly all countries. The U.S. later imposed tariff-rate quotas suspending these tariffs on a set volume of steel and aluminum products imported from the European Union, Japan, and the United Kingdom and suspended the steel tariffs for Ukraine through June 1, 2025.
The tariffs were extended to certain derivatives of steel and aluminum articles as of Feb. 8, 2020, though there were exceptions for Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EU, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and the UK for derivatives of steel and for Argentina, Australia, Canada, the EU, Mexico, and the UK for derivatives of aluminum.
Agreements that had suspended Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom were terminated as of March 12, 2025.
All existing general approved exclusions from the tariffs were terminated as of March 12, 2025 (though granted product exclusions will remain in effect until their expiration date or until their excluded volume is imported, whichever occurs first). The process for requesting exclusions has also been terminated.
Official Documents