Trump’s potential steel, aluminum rollback would be latest tariff reversal amid broader affordability push
A significant tariff concession may be on the horizon, as the Trump administration acknowledged Friday that it could scale back some tariffs on goods containing steel and aluminium.
A Friday report from the Financial Times outlined the White House’s plan to reduce tariffs on some products made with the metals, from ovens to drink cans. Trump’s team has responded that any decision isn’t final, but this potential concession would be the latest among more than half a dozen moves to lower tariffs over the past three months.
The changes range from a reduction of food tariffs to a deescalation of tensions with trading partners to new tariff plans with exclusions so wide that they are expected to have little impact on consumers’ pocketbooks.
President Trump after making an announcement at the White House on Feb. 12. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) ·SAUL LOEB via Getty Images
The administration’s shift in its tariff approach has been apparent since last November, when affordability emerged as a potent political issue that led to Republican election losses that month.
And these moves have already had some apparent effects. Friday’s cooler-than-expected inflation reading saw some politically sensitive food prices in decline.
The price of coffee — a key area of White House focus — fell 0.9% between December and January. Similarly in focus have been prices for beef and veal, with those prices down by 0.4% over the same stretch. That came as the overall Consumer Price Index showed a price increase of 0.2% in January from a month earlier.
The move also comes as a political backlash to tariffs is evident, even among Republicans. Earlier this week, six GOP lawmakers crossed party lines to reject Trump’s tariffs on Canada.
“This may be an indication that President Trump’s trade policy is moving into a new, more nuanced phase,” international trade lawyer Ted Murphy of the firm Sidley Austin wrote in a note to Yahoo Finance on Friday.
Murphy added that an initial tariff phase — defined in his view by big tariffs, quickly imposed — is being gradually replaced by a recognition “that, at least in some cases, expanding tariffs may actually do more harm than good.”
A possible action on some steel and aluminium tariffs would represent perhaps the sharpest pivot yet.
Steel and aluminum tariffs have been a priority for Trump stretching back to his first term and were some of the earliest new tariffs announced last year when he returned to office. Trump team visits to US steel plants that they say are being bolstered by these tariffs have also become a regular feature of administration travel.
President Trump speaks during a visit to US Steel’s Irvin Works in West Mifflin, Penn., last May. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) ·SAUL LOEB via Getty Images
The response on Friday from the Trump administration was largely to downplay the move.
In a CNBC appearance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent didn’t deny that some changes could be in the works, but said it remains up to Trump and described the potential changes as “clarification on some incidental objects.”
Yet a wide array of goods could see price relief if the move goes forward — from washing machines to ovens to pie tins to drink cans — and would quite literally hit home for many consumers.
Friday’s news came after months where the White House has offered a variety of step-backs around tariffs, all in apparent concessions to affordability worries.
On Nov. 14, grocery store tariff carve-outs were announced, including exclusions on a wide array of agricultural tariffs on items from beef to coffee to pineapples.
That was followed by tariff reductions on goods from specific countries. Brazilian food products also saw significant new exclusions in November after Trump had imposed 50% tariffs on imports.
A billboard displays an anti-tariff message in 2025 in Miramar, Fla, placed by the Canadian government in numerous US cities. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) ·Joe Raedle via Getty Images
The administration has also downplayed tensions with China in recent months ahead of an April summit. Recent months have also seen a deal with India, which cut many tariffs from 50 to 18% across a range of goods. A new deal with Taiwan, which also saw some lower duties, was announced this week.
Elsewhere, long-promised tariffs were revealed to be less than initially promised.
That means most consumer electronics — from Apple’s iPhone on down — have often managed to dodge tariffs so far in Trump’s second term, diminishing expectations that any change there is forthcoming.
It has been a similar story with pharmaceutical tariffs. Initial promises of 100% or higher tariffs on those goods have been replaced in recent months with a drug pricing deal that has ensured major drugmakers are excluded from tariffs, likely for the next three years.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
