The US Department of Commerce announced late on Friday 15 August 2025 that it would add 407 products to the list of steel and aluminium derivative goods subject to Section 232 tariffs, with the duties taking effect just three days later, on 18 August. The newly covered items, ranging from motorcycles, engines, lawn mowers, rail locomotives and metal furniture to industrial robotics and lifting machinery, face the 50 percent tariff on their steel or aluminium content only, 25 percent for Britain. Commerce gave no exemption for goods already in transit. The move was the first result of the inclusions process the Bureau of Industry and Security set up earlier in the year, allowing companies to ask for downstream products to be brought inside the tariff net. Sixty requested codes were declined. The expansion showed how far the tariff regime had reached beyond primary metal: importers of manufactured goods now had to break out the value of steel and aluminium content on their customs entries and pay the duty on that share.
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