Securing an American Aluminum Supply Chain: Why Downstream Tariff Coverage Is Essential

Securing an American Aluminum Supply Chain: Why Downstream Tariff Coverage Is Essential

U.S. aluminum tariff policy must consider the full aluminum value chain. Downstream extruders and fabricators account for most aluminum manufacturing employment and are the key producers converting metal into critical products used in construction, transportation, machinery, electrical systems, packaging, defense, and other industrial markets.

Import Values Fell By Around $6 Billion In June, But Month Was Second Highest Goods Import Surge of 2026

Import Values Fell By Around $6 Billion In June, But Month Was Second Highest Goods Import Surge of 2026

Despite foreign currency gains against the dollar in top trading partners like Mexico, Vietnam and China, import values for goods came in at $309.01 billion. That is the second highest import value of the year following May’s $316.86 billion surge, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Tuesday.

Food Security Is Fertilizer Security

Food Security Is Fertilizer Security

Fertilizer, and access to it, is essential in maintaining the strength of the entire American agricultural sector. Mineral fertilizers are responsible for over half the food produced worldwide, and it has run up to 44 percent of corn operating costs and up to 45 percent of wheat operating costs since 2020. When fertilizer prices spike, they hit the crops that feed the country — and the livestock fed off those crops.

Ranking America’s Duties on Tonnage

Ranking America’s Duties on Tonnage

The SHIPS for America Act treats the duty on tonnage chiefly as a sanctions tool – a penalty reserved for adversary-linked shipping – while leaving the standard duty at rates the Founders would have mistaken for a rounding error. Here is a ranking of selected landmark federal rates from 1789 to today, in 2026 dollars.

Saving American Cannery

Saving American Cannery

President Trump’s revision to the steel tariff in 2025 was meant to fix the tariff inversion problem – situations where we tariff steel imports, but not things made of steel. Putting a tariff on metal can imports, but not metal cans filled with food, is a perfect example of mindless tariff inversion driving offshoring. This precise problem was solved and settled in 1930, and Commerce and USTR can fix it at any time with existing authority.