Overview

• The duties took effect upon announcement, covering goods already en route and contributing to delays, cancellations and reported backlogs at U.S. ports.
• Newly targeted categories span consumer and industrial items including motorcycles, construction machinery, appliances, tableware and products in aluminium packaging such as shampoo and condensed milk.
• Exporters are required to apportion the steel or aluminium content of complex products for duty assessment, creating a compliance burden that has paused some shipments.
• UK ministers say Britain remains the only country spared a 50% metals rate under a recent framework, though implementation is unresolved and industry leaders are urging rapid negotiations.
• The administration is defending the tariffs as economic policy, with President Trump pointing to a CBO estimate that tariff revenues will cut U.S. budget deficits by roughly $4 trillion over ten years.