The United States' reinstated 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium took effect on 12 March 2025, ending years of exemptions, quotas and product exclusions. From that date, all steel and aluminium products named in the February proclamations were subject to the duties, with no exceptions for allied countries and no goods-in-transit relief. The measures were imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows import restrictions on national security grounds, and they extended to downstream derivative products. Only steel melted and poured in the United States was exempt. Canada, the largest supplier of steel to the US, and Mexico, the third-largest, were hit hardest, alongside the European Union, Japan and South Korea. The tariffs immediately reshaped trade flows: US buyers turned to domestic mills, American steel prices rose, and exporters in Europe and Asia began diverting shipments to other markets, a displacement that would soon prompt the European Union to tighten its own steel safeguards.
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