The Nationwide Affiliation of Residence Builders has sounded the alarm on the potential influence on housing prices if Trump follows by way of on threats to impose duties on Canadian wooden and gypsum from Mexico.
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Add metal and aluminum to the checklist of constructing supplies that might quickly be topic to tariffs, President Trump instructed reporters flying with him to the Tremendous Bowl on Air Drive One.
“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff,” Trump mentioned Sunday, including that imports of aluminum would even be hit with duties, the Related Press reported.
Trump signed a proclamation on Monday implementing a 25 p.c tariff on imported metal and elevating aluminum tariffs from 10 p.c to 25 p.c.
“President Trump is taking action to protect America’s critical steel and aluminum industries, which have been harmed by unfair trade practices and global excess capacity,” with the tariffs set to take impact March 12, the White Home mentioned in a “fact sheet” printed Tuesday.
The Nationwide Affiliation of Residence Builders (NAHB) has been sounding the alarm on the potential influence on housing prices of Trump’s Feb. 1 order to bump up tariffs on items from Canada and Mexico by 25 p.c.
Factoring within the 14.5 p.c duties already in place on Canadian lumber, homebuilders might quickly be paying the U.S. authorities 40 p.c additional in the event that they use Canadian wooden to construct properties, the NAHB has warned.
Almost three quarters (70 p.c) of the $8.5 billion in wooden imported into the U.S. in 2023 got here from Canada, the NAHB says, and 71 p.c of the $456 million in lime and gypsum merchandise imported in 2023 got here from Mexico.
“For most goods, the cost is passed on the end-users, meaning consumers,” the NAHB maintains. “So tariffs on building materials raise the cost of housing, and consumers end up paying for the tariffs in the form of higher home prices.”
The NAHB has additionally lauded the Jan. 16 nomination of homebuilder scion Invoice Pulte to steer Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s federal regulator, and Trump’s Jan. 21 govt order to handle housing prices — though the order was brief on specifics.
Whereas the elevated tariffs on Canadian and Mexican items have been placed on maintain for 30 days on Feb. 3, a ten p.c hike on duties imposed on Chinese language items went into impact final week. China is retaliating with tariffs on U.S.-produced crude oil, liquefied pure fuel, farm equipment and different merchandise that take impact Feb. 10, the AP reported.
Some traders and economists are involved that the Trump administration’s plans to impose tariffs, lower taxes, and deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants might reignite inflation — a priority now shared by many shoppers, surveys present.
In a Feb. 5 interview with Fox Enterprise host Larry Kudlow, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned the Trump administration’s technique for combating inflation hinges on bringing down power prices by boosting U.S. oil manufacturing.
Tariffs are “a means to an end” to carry manufacturing again to the U.S., Bessent mentioned, that “in theory, would be a shrinking ice cube” as manufacturing comes again to the U.S.
An extension of the 2017 tax cuts signed into legislation by Trump must be accompanied by spending cuts, the Treasury Secretary mentioned.
“You know, we cut the spending, we cut the size of government, we get more efficiency in government, and we’re going to go into a good interest rate cycle,” Bessent mentioned.
Editor’s observe: This story has been up to date to notice that President Trump signed a proclamation Monday implemeting tariffs on metal and alumimum that the White Home mentioned Tuesday will take impact on March 12.
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