Trump says will announce 25% tariffs on steel, aluminium

US President Donald Trump has said that he will announce on Monday new 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports into the US, which would come on top of existing metals duties in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.

"Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff," he told reporters on Sunday on Air Force One as he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl.

When asked about aluminium, he responded, "Aluminum, too," will be subject to the trade penalties.

Trump also reaffirmed that he would announce "reciprocal tariffs" —"probably Tuesday or Wednesday" — meaning that the US would impose import duties on products in cases where another country has levied duties on US goods.

"If they are charging us 130 percent and we're charging them nothing, it's not going to stay that way," he told reporters.

Tariff hammer

Trump, during his first term, imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium, but later granted several trading partners duty-free quotas, including Canada, Mexico and Brazil.

Former president Joe Biden extended these quotas to Britain, Japan and the European Union, and US steel mill capacity utilisation has dropped in recent years.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that the new tariffs would come on top of the existing duties on steel and aluminium.

On Friday, Trump announced that he would impose reciprocal tariffs- raising US tariff rates to match those of trading partners- on many countries this week.

He did not identify the countries, but the duties would be imposed "so that we're treated evenly with other countries."