Other industry stakeholders sound equally cautious on the night before what Trump called “Liberation Day” Wednesday. For example, the Aluminum Association supports some, not all, of the President’s obligations on major metals.
“A few percentage points increase recycling can significantly reduce reliance on primary aluminum from foreign sources,” said Charles Johnson, CEO of Trade Group, but said exports are also important to the industry.
According to the Recycled Materials Association (REMA), approximately 20% of recycled steel and 37% of recycled aluminum are sold overseas. This brings about a total of around $26.7 billion exports in 2023, with the organization estimated that foreign government retaliatory tariffs could be suffocated.
In 2018, Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs ruled out scrap metals, but Lema said he couldn’t determine whether it was true this time, including blanket duties in Mexico and Canada.
Industry groups were particularly disappointed that Trump chose to fight Canada, the leading US supplier of both steel and aluminum. According to the US Geological Survey, the country accounted for 50% of aluminum imports as of 2023, and as of 2023 it accounted for steel and iron imports.
Given these interdependencies, Lema says it is important that $11 billion worth of recycled materials continue to trade freely within North America.
Our materials move to where they are most in demand.
Adam Shaffer, Recycled Materials Association
“Our material moves to where they have the most demand,” said Adam Shaffer, Vice President of International Trade and World Affairs at REMA.
The Aluminum Association has long supported restraining low-cost Chinese imports of “unfairly traded aluminum,” but it opposes Canadian tariffs on aluminum. Johnson said he was optimistic that Trump would consider certain exemptions, as he did in 2018.
United Steelworkers have urged the administration to avoid unnecessary adversity to the industry’s biggest trading partners.
“While our union absolutely considers tariffs to be one of many important tools that need to be adopted to balance trade relations, we encourage a measured approach to strengthening the manufacturing sector and explaining our relationship with Canada, played by the rules,” the union said in a statement on February 10th.
Michael E. Hoffman, CEO of the National Waste Recycling Association, which primarily represents consumer goods recycling personnel, similarly said that it is common for recycled materials to move relatively freely between Mexico, Canada and the United States.
“It’s a North American model,” he said.
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Even if tariffs succeed in competing with domestic steel and aluminum (both newly manufactured and recycled supplies) with more competitive foreign counterparts, global retaliation threatens to destabilize the commodity market for these products. Higher prices at home are only good if there is sufficient demand for American businesses, Shaffer pointed out.
“If the market for these materials is not in the domestic market, it is harmful to both the environment and to the recyclers (and to) the recyclers,” he said.
Some of the Trump administration say their drastic changes to trade policy could cause short-term pain along the way to reinvigorate American industry. But even within the sector, there is skepticism that gambling will be rewarded as the White House is trying to strengthen.
“It can make sense to be made overseas here,” said Lincoln, owner of a Pennsylvania recycling plant. “I don’t know that infrastructure will come soon.”