(Hollie Noveletsky) – President Trump’s tariffs are causing much consternation at both the kitchen table and the business table.
Much of this anxiety comes from the rapid release of multiple Executive Orders (EO) relating to tariffs, making it difficult to grasp the individual and collective impact of the tariffs.
But tariffs have been a trade tool used by many countries, including the United States, for centuries.
The purpose of tariffs ranges from protecting national security interests to promoting and protecting domestic manufacturing from unfair trade policies by foreign countries.
In President Trump’s current administration, he has signed multiple EOs that utilize tariffs to address three separate national concerns.
The first EO was designed to protect our steel industry to ensure that our national security needs are met.
The second EO was designed to strengthen our borders from illegal immigration, and drug and human trafficking.
The third group of EOs was designed to address the unfair trade policies of foreign countries that distort the concept of free trade.
I am grateful to President Trump for his actions to protect our domestic steel industry. My family has been in the structural steel fabrication (SSF) industry for three generations.
In the United States, there are more than 1,000 SSF companies that employ more than 80,000 workers. These numbers do not reflect those that are employed in the steel mills, steel erection industry, and vendors/supplies who directly support the SSF industry.
We are a critical link in the structural steel supply chain that builds our defense manufacturing facilities (such as ships and military bases), our critical infrastructure (such as government buildings and water treatment plants) and our telecommunications.
The strength of our complete domestic structural steel supply chain, from melted and poured in the mills to erected in the field, is critical to our national security.
Starting in 1992 with the North American Free Trade Agreement and continuing to today, our domestic steel supply chain has been targeted by foreign countries.
China is now the world’s largest steel producer and exporter.
China’s government-owned steel mills have flooded the world markets with cheap, dumped and subsidized raw material.
Other countries such as, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, Vietnam and others have also targeted our domestic markets.
January 2025, year over year, imports of heavy structural steel are up 53.6%, and collective imports of all steel mill products are up 20.3 percent year over year.
During President Trump’s first term, he signed the Executive Order, Section 232, instituting tariffs on imports of raw steel to protect our domestic steel mills from this global overproduction and dumping of cheap, subsidized steel that undercut the health of our domestic steel mills.
This action was necessary to ensure the strength of our domestic structural steel supply chain to meet the needs of our critical infrastructure projects.
At the time of the signing of the EO, our domestic mills were functioning below 80 percent capacity.
Section 232 allowed our steel mills to increase production, restart shuttered mills, and rehire laid-off employees. The domestic steel mills were able to reinvest billions of dollars in technology and upgrades.
Unfortunately, after the institution of Section 232, the EO‘s intent was undermined by exemptions and quota systems for multiple foreign countries.
Countries, both friends and foe, quickly learned that they could circumvent the tariffs by simply punching a hole or welding a plate on the steel.
The steel would no longer come into the U.S. as raw material but as fabricated under a different import code thereby bypassing the tariff. Subsequently, the U.S. has seen a significant increase in imports of foreign FSS.
Canada, Mexico, and China ship large quantities of FSS to the U.S., undermining the domestic industry. Canada alone represents 25 percent of the imports to the U.S. market. In 2024, Canada had an 8.1 percent, year over year, increase in exports to our markets.
Domestic fabricators cannot compete with foreign government-owned or subsidized companies.
Wage discrepancies, OSHA requirements, government regulations, restrictions into reciprocal markets, energy costs and of course currency manipulation all play a role in foreign counties’ ability to undermine our domestic structural steel supply chain and put our ability to meet national security needs at risk.
President Trump’s EO related to Steel and Aluminum tariffs puts an end to the loopholes that allowed foreign countries to circumvent Section 232.
In addition, his most recent round of retaliatory tariffs is aimed at protecting our industrial manufacturing base from the same unfair, non-tariff trade barriers that have taken advantage of our domestic steel industry.
After all, a country that doesn’t have a strong, resilient supply chain is vulnerable to the trade ethics of foreign countries.
We must strengthen and protect American manufacturing and the American worker.
Hollie Noveletsky is CEO of Novel Iron Works in Greenland, N.H. She wrote this for InsideSources.com, published on 4/25/25. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.
