White House: no changes to Trump metals tariffs unless president announces them

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Trump administration officials said on Friday that there would be no changes to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs steel and aluminum and thousands of products made from the metals unless Trump announces them.

A White House official, responding to a Financial Times report that the administration was planning to scale back tariffs on some steel and aluminum goods with possible exemptions, said that Trump “will never compromise on reinvigorating the domestic manufacturing that is critical to our national and economic security, especially steel and aluminum production.”

The official said that the administration was implementing “a nimble and nuanced tariff agenda” to boost U.S. production in the steel, aluminum and other manufacturing sectors.

“Unless officially announced by the Administration, however, any reporting about changes to our current tariff regime is baseless speculation,” the official said.

Speaking earlier on CNBC, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “I don’t think it’s great reporting that we saw today” from the FT, but said that there could be some modifications.

“If anything is done, I think it would be some sort of clarification on some incidental objects, but again, that’s going to be the president’s decision,” Bessent said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the FT report, which cited unnamed sources as saying that the Trump administration was reviewing the tariffs and would exempt some items. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office also did not immediately respond.

CNBC reported that White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro, who has forcefully advocated for Trump’s muscular tariff approach, told the network off camera that there was no basis in fact for the FT report that the administration was planning to reduce the steel and aluminum tariffs.

The Commerce Department oversees the Section 232 national security tariffs that Trump doubled last year on steel and aluminum, adding thousands of derivative products made from the metals, including many imported auto and machinery parts and appliances.

Speculation of changes to the tariffs comes as Trump pivots to address the rising cost of living for Americans during a mid-term congressional election year.

The Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday said in its annual fiscal forecast that U.S. consumers are bearing about 95% of the costs of Trump’s tariffs either through higher prices on imported goods or higher prices charged on domestic manufactured goods.

The American Iron and Steel Institute on Friday urged the Trump administration to maintain the steel and aluminum tariffs, arguing that government-subsidized excess steel capacity in China and elsewhere was a threat to U.S. national security.

“The Section 232 steel tariffs imposed by President Trump are essential to prevent this overcapacity from fueling new surges of harmful imports into the U.S. market, which would cause a profound threat to American national security and undermine the health of the American steel industry,” AISI President Kevin Dempsey said in a statement.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Andrea Ricci and Nick Zieminski)