The Trump administration’s tariff policies have delivered a series of wins for the American people. Ford announced that it would be shifting more production of its Lincoln line from China to the United States. Sapporo, the beer brewer, recently said it would move brewing from Canada to south of the border.
The tariff agenda has been pursued using a wide array of tools. Many, including steel tariffs, have come by way of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. Steel and aluminum tariffs of some sort date back to Trump’s first presidency. Former President Joe Biden kept them going, and upon returning to office, President Trump increased them to 50% in some cases.
The loophole is pushing America’s retailers toward cheaper, foreign-filled canned food.
These tariffs helped to support a domestic steel industry that had fallen on tough times and whose weakness had turned the Steel Belt to the Rust Belt.
The strategy is clear: make foreign production more expensive, particularly in countries that regularly cheat, like China, in order to encourage companies to reshore in the United States. This will result in more jobs, weaker adversaries, more government revenue, and a stronger economy.
There is only one problem: There’s a loophole in the steel tariffs. The tariffs include tinplate steel, a type of thinner steel used to hold canned foods. Practically all of the cans of soup, fruit, vegetables, and fish that Americans purchase are made with tinplate steel. Tariffing tinplate steel in itself is no problem, as it fits in with broader goals of the administration. But in the current tariff landscape, cans manufactured in America and filled with foods grown by American farmers face much higher levies than cans produced overseas and filled with foreign-sourced foods.
It’s these imported canned foods that increasingly show up on American grocery store shelves, outcompeting against foods made in America.
The resulting issues this creates are obvious. The loophole is pushing America’s retailers toward cheaper, foreign-filled canned food. However, foreign food, especially in places like China, can be far less healthy or safe, since food safety regulations in those countries are far less stringent than in the United States.
This loophole weakens the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. It also directly benefits foreign competitors over domestic producers, both in terms of the tinplate steel that goes into making canned goods and the food found within them. This tariff on tinplate also shifts production and jobs overseas, at a time when American farmers, food processors, and manufacturers are capable of supplying the same products domestically.
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Fortunately, the loophole can be easily corrected: Apply the same Section 232 treatment to the steel in imported finished food cans that applies to imported tinplate steel, using the authority President Trump has already granted to the secretary of commerce and the U.S. trade representative. It will align with the administration’s broader tariff goals and support domestic steel producers.
This fix should not be difficult. Steel producers and manufacturers want to make their products in the United States. U.S. Steel, which was just saved by the Trump administration, is reopening a tinplate steel mill in Gary, Indiana, next year. But as long as this loophole persists, other companies will have trouble following U.S. Steel’s lead. And Americans will continue, in an effort to save money, to be directed toward foreign-filled food cans.
If the administration wants companies to invest, reshore, and produce in America, it’s time to stop giving foreign-filled food cans the advantage. The steel tariff should follow the steel, whether it arrives as an empty can or inside a finished food product.
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[H/T Blaze Media]
