President Trump in an early morning tweet on Tuesday credited tariffs for rebuilding the U.S. steel industry.
“In one year Tariffs have rebuilt our Steel Industry — it is booming! We placed a 25% Tariff on ‘dumped’ steel from China & other countries, and we now have a big and growing industry,” Trump tweeted. “We had to save Steel for our defense and auto industries, both of which are coming back strong!”
More than 12,700 jobs have been created or saved at steel and aluminum factories since the president implemented his tariff strategy last year, according to The Washington Post.
U.S. consumers and businesses, however, are paying more than $900,000 a year for every job saved or created by Trump’s steel tariffs, according to calculations obtained by the Post from the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
That is reportedly more than 13 times the typical salary of a steelworker, according to the Labor Department.
Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and $250 billion on imports from China in 2018.
Tensions between the Trump administration and China escalated last week after Chinese officials reportedly backtracked on a previous deal.
Trump fired back by hiking tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent.
China retaliated with tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. agricultural exports — a move meant to hit the Republican farm belt, according to experts.
China’s pushback shook the U.S. stock market and caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop 2.4 percent on Monday.
Trump last year also imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on the European Union, and the EU retaliated by targeting products in politically sensitive states, such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which are made in Wisconsin, and bourbon, which is primarily produced in Kentucky.
The U.S. and the EU came to a compromise last summer to work toward an agreement, but the Trump administration is reportedly looking at implementing new auto tariffs.