U.S. President Donald Trump’s new universal tariffs on steel and aluminum will cut off a significant market for Argentine manufacturers and could lead to an influx of products arriving in Argentina from other countries such as China, producers have warned.

The tariffs on imported steel and aluminum will now be 25%. 

“It’s 25%, without exceptions or exemptions, and it’s all countries, no matter where it comes from,” Trump said as he signed the proclamation on Monday.

In 2018, during Trump’s last presidential term, the U.S. applied legislation known as Section 232, which placed tariffs and quotas on steel products of all origins on the grounds that it affected national security.

However, Argentina negotiated an annual hard quota of 180,000 tonnes of steel products, including 150,000 of oil pipelines. It also secured exclusions for Argentine products for which U.S. manufacturers either did not manufacture enough, or did not meet the required quality. 

After Trump’s new announcement, there will be no more such carveouts under the new tariff regime. Argentina’s 180,000-tonne quota will be eliminated.

Argentina is a relative minnow in the global steel industry. Of global production of 1.9 billion tonnes in 2023, the country produced slightly over 3 million tonnes — 0.2% of the total. In 2023 and 2024, Argentina  exported US$100 million-110 million to the U.S., according to figures compiled by the Argentine Steel Chamber. 

The chamber’s figures also show that China’s participation in global steel production has risen from 10% in 1991 to 54% in 2023.

The question now is where all that steel and alumnium will go.

“We’re worried by the diversion of what can no longer enter the United States,” said Carlos Vaccaro, executive director of the Argentine Steel Chamber. 

This means Argentina’s aluminum and steel sector may find itself facing the double whammy of competing with increasing volumes of imports even as it loses U.S. market access.

In addition to hiking the tariffs, Trump’s measure expands the products that are subject to the measures.

The tariffs will take effect in early March.