“The United States is a powerhouse in aluminum production and fabrication against global competitors. That strength relies on imports of upstream aluminum, both smelted and scrap, from Canada. The Aluminum Association welcomes President Trump’s efforts to secure our borders and support American manufacturing by tackling unfair global trade. During his first term, President Trump was early to recognize the genuine threat that non-market actors pose to U.S. manufacturing industries like ours. This led to more than $10 billion in industry investment since 2016. This investment requires an enormous amount of metal, much of which the U.S. industry must import from within North America. To ensure that American aluminum wins the future, President Trump should exempt the aluminum metal supply needed for American manufacturers, while continuing to take every possible action at the U.S. border against unfairly traded Chinese aluminum. This is consistent with action his administration wisely took during his first term. Then, we should work to keep unfairly traded aluminum out of the region by harmonizing tariffs with our North American trading partners.”

The U.S. aluminum industry is an essential material for the nation's economy and defense industrial base, supplying everything from cars and trucks to fighter jets and tanks to the electric grid. In fact, aluminum is one of only 11 mineral commodities included on every government critical materials list, including the Department of Defense. Today, the industry generates $228 billion in economic output and supports 700,000 total American jobs. And since 2016, the U.S. aluminum industry has made more than $10 billion in domestic manufacturing investments including the first new U.S. rolling mills since 1980. 

Thanks to robust domestic demand and coming investment, the U.S. aluminum industry needs a steady and predictable supply of primary, secondary and scrap aluminum. Today, much of that metal comes from North American trading partners, especially Canada. The U.S. industry sources around 2/3 of the primary aluminum it uses every year from Canada, since all U.S.-based smelters, even running at full capacity, cannot produce nearly enough metal to meet demand. And about 90% of U.S. scrap imports come from either Canada or Mexico. It would take billions of investment over decades to make the United States fully self-sufficient for its metal needs.