The American president is relaxing surcharges to encourage manufacturers to relocate their aluminum production to the United States, in the face of national production considered insufficient.
American President Donald Trump signed a decree on Monday reducing the extent of customs duties imposed on aluminum due to the “still insufficient” production of this metal on American soil, despite a “strengthening of the industry” in the country.
If a company commits to building a factory in the United States, it will be able to benefit from a surcharge reduced by half on the quantity of aluminum it will bring into the country and corresponding to the production envisaged for the future installation. Imported aluminum is currently subject to a 50% surcharge in general.
At the same time, the company will have to regularly demonstrate the progress of its relocation project if it wishes to continue to benefit from this reduced rate, by providing a regular report to the Department of Commerce. If the ministry were to consider that the company had not fulfilled its commitments, it would be “authorized to revoke the advantages granted”.
A context of insufficient national production
According to the decree, Donald Trump followed the recommendation of his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, for whom “domestic production and supply of primary aluminum, essential to the American economy, are still insufficient”. “From his point of view, it is important to modify the customs duty regime on aluminum so as to gradually and effectively encourage the domestic production of primary aluminum.”
Like other sectoral customs duties, it was not canceled by the decision of the Supreme Court last February, the highest court in the country having only ruled on customs duties imposed on all products entering the country.
This is the second change made by Donald Trump to the customs duty regime imposed on aluminum. At the beginning of April, another decree had already determined that finished products containing a significant proportion of steel, aluminum or copper be taxed at 25% of their total value, and no longer at 50% on the proportion of metals they contained, a change which aims above all to simplify the collection of these customs duties.
