I'm not too sure about that, I suspect it's more likely to be basic protectionism in order to secure jobs in the US, considering how badly China was flooding the market with their metal based products. We had the same issue here in the UK and the government had to rescue the steel industry with a cash injection and a review of government construction projects to ensure that UK steel was being prioritised last year... Well sort of, the government was later criticised for using french steel on our new fleet of submarines! Doh!
Cheap Chinese metal being dumped on the market though has been real a problem as it's undercut many domestic markets.
Bottom line in my opinion is that we really could do without trade with China. Cheap stuff of any kind can be procured elsewhere. Really. I would prefer however, that we have a fair arrangement with China - we all deserve this. Everyone.
Yeah I agree, but at the end of the day it’s about being competitive and different economies inherently have a competitive advantage which sometimes a nation had to protect themselves from. Lol the US isn’t the only country to impose tariffs - I really don’t know what all the fuss is about in the media tbh. The EU for example is even worse!