UniversalMonk

President Donald Trump’s administration imposed stiff tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. Feb. 10, claiming the duties will defend jobs for workers in those and related industries and are in the interests of “all Americans.”

In fact, the protectionist measures are a club used by the bosses to grab a bigger share of world markets amid rising competition with allies and rivals alike. They’re accompanied by patriotic propaganda aimed at lining workers and our unions up behind the U.S. ruling class and against fellow workers worldwide.

Trump issued a 25% tariff on all steel entering the U.S., upped tariffs on aluminum imports from 10% to 25%, and jettisoned exemptions on duties granted by former President Joseph Biden. These actions follow a 10% tariff Trump imposed on all goods across the board from China Feb. 4, and the threat to enact yet more duties on any goods imported into the U.S. that come from countries whose governments levy tariffs on exports from the U.S.

Steel imported into the U.S. comes primarily from Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico and South Korea. But Chinese capitalists dominate steel and aluminum production and trade worldwide, and they are Washington’s main target.

The tariffs will go into effect March 12. Trump hopes to use the intervening weeks to press Washington’s competitors to accept new trade terms more favorable to U.S. bosses. During his first term in office he levied tariffs, then issued exemptions when governments hit by the measures announced they would limit exports to the U.S.

The tariffs will have the greatest impact in countries with large auto, construction and other industries that depend on steel.

Trump was emboldened to exert Washington’s immense economic weight after the governments of Canada and Mexico conceded to his demands to take steps to reduce immigration and drug trafficking on their borders with the U.S. when Trump threatened tariffs against them earlier this month.

The administration’s moves build on tariffs applied by previous Democratic and Republican administrations against Beijing. Both parties seek to bolster Washington’s weakening place at the top of the imperialist “world order” and to curb Beijing’s rising economic and political clout.

Washington’s moves show Trump’s “unwavering commitment to American workers and national security,” said Peter Navarro, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. He claimed the measures will “usher in a new Golden Age of prosperity.”

United Steelworkers International President David McCall backed the tariffs. “Our union welcomes President Donald Trump’s efforts to contain the global overcapacity that has for too long enabled bad actors like China to flood the global market,” he said. McCall also called on Trump to treat Canada less aggressively than China.

The Steelworkers union in Canada is a member of the newly formed Canada-U.S. Trade Council, a protectionist outfit initiated by bosses and government officials to defend Ottawa’s interests in trade conflicts with Washington.

Defenders of Trump’s tariffs say they’re necessary because of productive “overcapacity.” China’s rulers face an economic slowdown and have produced more steel than they can use. Washington complains they’ve “dumped” this on world markets, lowering prices.

When the rulers talk of “overcapacity” they don’t mean too much production to meet human needs, but more than they can sell to make sufficient profits. By echoing the economic nationalism of their own governments, USW officials in the U.S. and Canada are arrayed against each other. This is a blow to building solidarity between workers in the U.S. and Canada, as well as China and worldwide.

The U.S. rulers aim to convince workers that our jobs, living standards and future depend on whether the U.S. bosses come out on top in these trade clashes, just as they try to convince workers to sacrifice and accept worse wages and conditions to make the companies we work for more “competitive.”

Workers are an international class “Workers in the U.S., China and elsewhere have common class interests, not conflicting ones, as the bosses and their governments claim,” Joanne Kuniansky, Socialist Workers Party candidate for New Jersey governor, told the Militant.

“The idea that unions should defend ‘American’ jobs against other workers’ jobs is a dangerous trap,” she said. “Workers have no stake in tying our fate to the rulers’ trade policies. We have everything to gain from international solidarity.

“Workers’ future lies in our common struggles against the bosses, and in breaking with their parties, the Democrats and Republicans. We need to build a party of our own, a party of labor, to lay the basis for workers to wrest political power from the capitalist class.”

Underlying today’s trade conflicts are the intensifying national rivalries between the world’s major capitalist powers for control over markets and resources. The deepening crisis of capitalism drives each national ruling class to fight to maximize its market share and the profits each squeezes from working people. As trade conflicts sharpen, the threat of shooting wars grow.

Government officials in competing steel-producing countries all denounced Washington’s steel and aluminum tariffs. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz joined in threatening retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.

Decades ago, the EU was established by the competing capitalist governments in Europe as a protectionist trading bloc against Washington. For their part, the U.S. rulers use the massive size of the U.S. domestic market to push back, threatening to restrict access to those who get in their way.

As the capitalist crisis deepens and trade conflicts escalate, the prospect of a third world war over the redivision of the world becomes more likely.

Before then, rising class struggles will create openings for workers to take political power into our own hands. This underlines the need for the labor movement to reject all attempts by the rulers to divide workers along national lines, and instead to strengthen our unity, fighting capacities and international class solidarity.