About 70% of the steel used in the US to make cans for food is imported today, coming in from countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Canada, according to the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), a business group representing can-makers.
After Trump ordered tariffs on steel in 2018, many can-makers won “exclusions” from those import taxes, over the objections of steelmakers, given the limited production of the type of steel used to make cans in the US.
Since then, steel manufacturers have cut production further, pushing up prices, warned the CMI, which sent a letter to the Trump administration earlier this month signed by big food companies including General Mills, Del Monte and Goya.
Robert Budway, president of the CMI, said without exemptions for can manufacturers to import steel tariff free, grocery prices for canned foods made in the US are likely to rise.
“While the president may believe that these tariffs are protecting the steel industry, they certainly are undermining our food security and our supply resiliency for American canned food, which Americans rely on every day,” Mr Budway said.
When it comes to aluminium, brewers and makers of fizzy drinks, such as Coca-Cola, have also warned the move will add costs and could lead to higher prices for customers.
“We control enough variables that we can adapt and mitigate our way through what is happening,” Coca-Cola chief executive James Quincey told investors this week.
Trump has said there will be no exemptions from the rules this time, either for individual products or for particular countries, however some sectors are hoping he will row back from that position.
